UC (UNIX Consultant). A Progress Report
Robert Wilensky, James Mayfield, Anthony Albert, David N. Chin, Charles A. Cox, Marc Luria, James Martin, Dekai Wu · 1987
Abstract : UC is an intelligent natural language interface that allows naive users to learn about the UNIX operating system. UC was undertaken because the task was thought to be both a fertile domain for Artificial Intelligence research and a useful application of AI work in planning, reasoning, natural language processing and knowledge representation. The current implementation of UC comprises the following components: A language analyzer, called ALANA, that produces a representation of the content contained in an utterance; and inference component called a concretion mechanism that further refines this content; a goal analyzer, PAGAN, that hypothesizes the plans and goals under which the user is operating; an agent, called UCEgo, that decides on UC's goals and proposes plans for them; a domain planner, called UCPlanner, that computes a plan to address the user's request; an expression mechanism, UCExpress, that determines the content to be communicated to the user, and a language production mechanism, UCGen, that expresses UC's response in English. UC also builds a model of the user that represents UC's assessment of the user's knowledge state with respect to UNIX. Another mechanism, UCTeacher, allows a user to add knowledge of both English vocabulary and facts about UNIX to UC's knowledge base. This is done by interacting with the user in natural language.