Comment by carlsborg

The Cyc project proposed the idea of software "assistants" : formally represented knowledge based on a shared ontology, reasoning systems that can draw on that knowledge, handle tasks and anticipate the need to perform them.[1]

The lead author on [1] is Kathy Panton who has no publications after that and zero internet presence as far as i can tell.

[1] Common Sense Reasoning – From Cyc to Intelligent Assistant https://iral.cs.umbc.edu/Pubs/FromCycToIntelligentAssistant-...