Talk:Blackboard system

http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/1999/tm/NASA-99-tm209128.pdf

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Removing the Citation-free Criticism Section

I removed the following section critiquing blackboard systems as it lacked citations and asserted unfounded critiques against blackboard systems that better belonged to either a general critique of symbolic AI at that time or to a discussion of the causes of the second AI Winter.

I provide a detailed rebuttal below.

Criticism Blackboard systems were popular before the AI Winter and, along with most symbolic AI models, fell out of fashion during that period. Along with other models it was realised that initial successes on toy problems did not scale well to real problems on the available computers of the time. Most problems using blackboards are inherently NP-hard, so resist tractable solution by any algorithm in the large size limit. During the same period, statistical pattern recognition became dominant, most notably via simple Hidden Markov Models outperforming symbolic approaches such as Hearsay-II in the domain of speech recognition.

The following parts were clearly wrong: "Along with other models it was realised that initial successes on toy problems did not scale well to real problems on the available computers of the time." as blackboard systems, in particular the BB1 blackboard was used for real-world problems: 3-D X-ray crystallography interpretation, construction site-plan layout, intelligent tutoring control, and real-time patient monitoring in an ICU.

The statement: "Most problems using blackboards are inherently NP-hard, so resist tractable solution by any algorithm in the large size limit." is misleading as it is the application of knowledge in blackboard systems that directly tackles and makes such problems more practically addressable. For example, the NP-hard Traveling Salesperson Problem is an example problem that BB1 solves easily with the addition of two or three heuristics to come up with good, not necessarily optimal, solutions. The TSP problem is distributed with BB1 installations as a simple example.

The last part: "During the same period, statistical pattern recognition became dominant, most notably via simple Hidden Markov Models outperforming symbolic approaches such as Hearsay-II in the domain of speech recognition." is misleading. As Henry Kautz points out in his AAAI 2022 paper in AI Magazine, statistical and machine learning approaches to AI became more prominent during the Second AI Winter precisely to address the challenges knowledge-based systems were having in addressing uncertainty and in knowledge capture.

If the author of the critique has examples showing that HMMs clearly outperformed Hearsay-II at the time of Hearsay-II, which ended in September 1976 according to [1], then they should present the cited evidence.

Veritas Aeterna (talk) 02:11, 18 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Enhancements to the Implementation Section

BB1 and GBB were noticeably missing from the discussion of blackboard implementations so I added several paragraphs there. I then reorganized the applications listed, just to make it all easier to read, and also added the use of blackboards as one of a suite of tools commonly presented as useful for Game AI.

I am less familiar with GBB than BB1, so if someone more familiar with GBB wants to add more on GBB, please do so.

Veritas Aeterna (talk) 02:17, 18 March 2023 (UTC)[reply]

'Blackboard system' entry needs a thorough cleaning and rebuilding.

This topic, like many others, has become seriously compromised by many years of changes in aid of touting one product or line of research over another, by competing groups of researchers (usually in competing companies or competing for the same grants). Frankly, it is unreliable and unusable at current time, neglecting far too many developments in this field, and too narrowly focusing on one formulation or another. Rather than a dispassionate encyclopedia entry, it remains a mishmash of the remains of too many edits by competing groups. We must do better.

I think it is the result of different contributions and writing styles, not so much competing groups of researchers. But I am thinking that moving the section "Learnable Task Modeling Language" into the Implementation system would be an improvement. I would also revise the intro text for that to say "A blackboard system can also be viewed as a central space for communication in a multi-agent system. In this case, it describes the world and acts as a communication platform for agents. If the agents act together in solving a problem they can be viewed as knowledge sources in the blackboard problem-solving model." I would have to read more about the application the original author proposed. If the agents just use the system for communication, then I don't think such a system qualifies as a blackboard system.

Do you have other specific suggestions?

Veritas Aeterna (talk) 21:41, 29 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]