The International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (or IJCAI) is a meeting of researchers from the different areas of artificial intelligence (AI). It is organized by the IJCAI, Inc., and has been held every other year since 1969. Originally, the other years saw the meetings of the ECAI, AAAI, and a Pacific conference, but currently the AAAI conference runs every year. When it is held in North America it is hosted by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and traditionally replaces the AAAI conference. IJCAI is a highly selective conference. For instance, only 20% of the papers submitted to the conference were accepted in 2005. This makes it a more selective publication than many AI journals.
Three research awards are given at each IJCAI conference. The Computers & Thought Award is given to a relatively young (less than 35 years) researcher having already made a significant contribution to the field. The Donald E. Walker Distinguished Service Award is given to someone who has been doing a lot of the grunt work the last years. The IJCAI Award for Research Excellence is given to someone relatively old who had made a significant impact on the field. Previous recipients of the latter award include Alan Bundy, John McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Allen Newell, Ray Reiter, and Judea Pearl.