
5th Generation Project in Japan ($400M and Prolog in the '80's) - nwatson
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/5thgen.htm
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nwatson
The choice of Prolog:

    
    
        The Japanese Fifth Generation project was a
        collaborative effort of the Japanese computer
        industry coordinated by the Japanese Government
        that intended not only to update the hardware
        technology of computers but alleviate the
        problems of programming by creating AI
        operating systems that would ferret out what
        the user wanted and then do it. The Project
        chose to use PROLOG as the computer language
        for the AI programming instead of the
        LISP-based programming of the American
        AI researchers.
    

... and eventual failure ...

    
    
        A bold 10-year effort by Japan to seize the
        lead in computer technology is fizzling to
        a close having failed to meet many of its
        ambitious goals or to produce technology
        that Japan's computer industry wanted.
        After spending $400 million on its widely
        heralded Fifth Generation computer project,
        the Japanese Government said this week that
        it was willing to give away the software
        developed by the project to anyone who
        wanted it, even foreigners.

