---
title: "Figuring Out What the User Wants: Steps Toward an Automatic Yellow Pages Assistant"
authors:
  - "Anatole Gershman"
doi: ""
url: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/81"
pdf: "https://ijcai.org/proceedings/1981/0081.pdf"
venue: "Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence"
year: 1981
pages: "423-424"
track: "Natural Language Applications"
keywords:
---

# Figuring Out What the User Wants: Steps Toward an Automatic Yellow Pages Assistant

Anatole Gershman

*Proceedings of the Seventh International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence*, pages 423-424.

## Abstract

An experimental system, AYPA . for automatic Yellow Pages assistance is described . The system, which operates in the domain of automobiles, automobile pa rts , and related objects, reads the user's request in si mple English, analyzes it and represents it in terms of the system's conceptual primitives. From this, the sys tem tries to figure out the intent of the request and f ormulate 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.