a. 1970s to 1980s: From the 1970s through the mid-1980s, the ongoing evolution of AI continued to advance along the two primary paths that had been present from the outset: the enhancement of reasoning processes and the refinement of expert knowledge representation (Brock, 2018). AI researchers develop knowledge-based systems, where explicit rules determine decision-making. As an example, starting in 1972 and concluding in 1980, the MYCIN project played a pivotal role in assisting physicians in diagnosing a range of infectious blood diseases based on collections of clinical symptoms. What set MYCIN apart from DENDRAL was its approach of maintaining a clear separation between the rules (comprising expert knowledge) and the inference engine responsible for applying these rules. Expert systems were “the new new thing” in the 1980s, daily applied in roughly two thirds of the Fortune 500 companies (Press, 2020).
