Inference Corporation[1] [2] specializes in "the development of artificial intelligence computer systems."[3]
Los Angeles-based Inference was founded in 1979.[3] In the 1990s they built a case-based computer program for Compaq Computer Corporation that would enable dealing with a situation where "a computer printer turns out a blurry and smeared page" without having to call a help desk.[1] Although such software already existed, the breakthrough was that it was small enough to fit "on three floppy disks."
The company's Automated Reasoning Tool (ART), initially implemented on a mainframe, subsequently made available on PCs, has been extended to ART-IM, an Information Management package; the product line originated in 1988.[4] [5]
Ford and AOL are among the household-known corporations that use Inference software to enhance customer service.[6] [3] Inference was acquired by eGain Corporation in 2000.[7] Prior to that, Inference acquired 1981-founded Computer Mathematics Corporation, marketer of SMP (computer algebra system);[8] Inference made another acquisition the year before they themselves were acquired by eGain.[9]
The Automated Reasoning Tool (ART) is a system designed by Paul Haley,[10] Chuck Williams, Brad Allen, and Mark Wright,[11] to design rule-based knowledge representations with options for frame and procedural methods of knowledge base representation.[12]
ART's syntax influenced NASA's derived CLIPS in the mid-80s.[11] ART is a derivative of OPS5, with extensions, built for the Inference Corporation.[10]