The expert systems business has been through a terrible period in 1987–88. In the USA, the “Gang of Four”—the new venture software companies which once led the industry—have all run into losses and cut back staff more or less severely. Symbolics, whose high priced Lisp workstations have made it the biggest single company in artificial intelligence (AI), has hit an equally dramatic reversal of fortunes.
Abstract: The expert systems business has been through a terrible period in 1987–88. In the USA, the “Gang of Four”—the new venture software companies which once led the industry—have all run into losses and cut back staff more or less severely. Symbolics, whose high priced Lisp workstations have made it the biggest single company in artificial intelligence (AI), has hit an equally dramatic reversal of fortunes.
