This was published as a preface to the proceedings of ATAL-98. The leading-edge of computer science research is notoriously fickle.
New trends come and go with alarming and unfailing regularity.
In such a rapidly changing field, the fact that research interest in a subject lasts more than a year is worthy of note. The fact that, after five years, interest not only remains, but actually continues to grow is highly unusual. The workshop, which was planned over the summer of 1993, attracted 32 submissions, and was attended by 55 people. ATAL-95 was held at the International Joint Conference on AI, which in 1995 was held in Montreal, Canada. The number of submissions leapt to 55, and the workshop was attended by 70 people.