- A. Gershman. 1981. Figuring Out What the User Wants: Steps Toward an Automatic Yellow Pages Assistant. Abstract: An experimental system, AYPA, for automatic Yellow Pages assistance is described. The system, which operates in the domain of automobiles, automobile parts, and related objects, reads the user's request in simple English, analyzes it and represents it in terms of the system's conceptual primitives. From this, the system tries to figure out the intent of the request and formulate a Yellow Pages query. It paraphrases the request back to the user in English and searches its data base for the relevant Yellow Pages categories. The system serves as a research vehicle for experiments with its various components and user interfaces.
