A perspective on symbolic mathematical computing and artificial intelligence

The nature and history of the research area common to artificial intelligence and symbolic mathematical computation are examined, with particular reference to the topics having the greatest current amount of activity or potential for further development: mathematical knowledge-based computing environments, autonomous agents and multiagent systems, transformation of problem descriptions in logics into algebraic forms, exploitation of machine learning, qualitative reasoning, and constraint-based programming. Knowledge representation, for mathematical knowledge, is identified as a central focus for much of this work. Several promising topics for further research are stated.