Semantic Web and Software Agents -- A Forgotten Wave of Artificial Intelligence?

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Pitkäranta, Tapio, Hyvönen, Eero
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912389014749184
author Pitkäranta, Tapio
Hyvönen, Eero
author_facet Pitkäranta, Tapio
Hyvönen, Eero
contents The history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a narrative of waves -- rising optimism followed by crashing disappointments. AI winters, such as the early 2000s, are often remembered as barren periods of innovation. This paper argues that such a perspective overlooks a crucial wave of AI that seems to be forgotten: the rise of the Semantic Web, which is based on knowledge representation, logic, and reasoning, and its interplay with intelligent Software Agents. Fast forward to today, and ChatGPT has reignited AI enthusiasm, built on deep learning and advanced neural models. However, before Large Language Models (LLMs) dominated the conversation, another ambitious vision emerged -- one where AI-driven Software Agents autonomously served Web users based on a structured, machine-interpretable Web. The Semantic Web aimed to transform the World Wide Web into an ecosystem where AI could reason, understand, and act. Between 2000 and 2010, this vision sparked a significant research boom, only to fade into obscurity as AI's mainstream narrative shifted elsewhere. Today, as LLMs edge toward autonomous execution, we revisit this overlooked wave. By analyzing its academic impact through bibliometric data, we highlight the Semantic Web's role in AI history and its untapped potential for modern Software Agent development. Recognizing this forgotten chapter not only deepens our understanding of AI's cyclical evolution but also offers key insights for integrating emerging technologies.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_20793
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Semantic Web and Software Agents -- A Forgotten Wave of Artificial Intelligence?
Pitkäranta, Tapio
Hyvönen, Eero
Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Digital Libraries
cs.SI, cs.CY, cs.DL, cs.AI
The history of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a narrative of waves -- rising optimism followed by crashing disappointments. AI winters, such as the early 2000s, are often remembered as barren periods of innovation. This paper argues that such a perspective overlooks a crucial wave of AI that seems to be forgotten: the rise of the Semantic Web, which is based on knowledge representation, logic, and reasoning, and its interplay with intelligent Software Agents. Fast forward to today, and ChatGPT has reignited AI enthusiasm, built on deep learning and advanced neural models. However, before Large Language Models (LLMs) dominated the conversation, another ambitious vision emerged -- one where AI-driven Software Agents autonomously served Web users based on a structured, machine-interpretable Web. The Semantic Web aimed to transform the World Wide Web into an ecosystem where AI could reason, understand, and act. Between 2000 and 2010, this vision sparked a significant research boom, only to fade into obscurity as AI's mainstream narrative shifted elsewhere. Today, as LLMs edge toward autonomous execution, we revisit this overlooked wave. By analyzing its academic impact through bibliometric data, we highlight the Semantic Web's role in AI history and its untapped potential for modern Software Agent development. Recognizing this forgotten chapter not only deepens our understanding of AI's cyclical evolution but also offers key insights for integrating emerging technologies.
title Semantic Web and Software Agents -- A Forgotten Wave of Artificial Intelligence?
topic Social and Information Networks
Computers and Society
Digital Libraries
cs.SI, cs.CY, cs.DL, cs.AI
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.20793