MCC’s Cyc group aims to build a single intelligent agent with millions of entries for expert systems, natural language understanding, and machine learning. Cyc is a 40-year artificial intelligence project with vast knowledge and rules to mimic human reasoning, though overshadowed by current machine-learning algorithms. Led by Doug Lenat, Cyc combines common-sense knowledge and deep expertise to make deductions. The project was challenging due to representing real-world knowledge, but remained optimistic about its progress. Despite being considered outdated compared to neural networks, Cyc’s 25-million-rule knowledge base still stands. Lenat believed that integrating Cyc with large language models could lead to a potent synthesis in AI.
https://outsiderart.substack.com/p/cyc-historys-forgotten-ai-project