Daniel S. Weld
Daniel S. Weld researches automated planning, information extraction and human-centered AI. He earned his MIT AI doctorate in 1988 and began a Washington faculty career that year. His shared work includes UCPOP and methods for extracting web information. He also helped found software companies, including Netbot and its Jango shopping-search tool. AAAI elected him a Fellow in 1999. He is a professor emeritus and leads Semantic Scholar at Ai2.
- Works
- 338
- Citations
- 33,740
- h-index
- 85
Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 14 October 2026.
Timeline
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1982–1988
Training and a Washington career
Weld studied computing and biochemistry at Yale, graduating in 1982, and earned his MIT doctorate in AI in 1988. He began an assistant professorship at the University of Washington that year. He later became a professor emeritus.
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1992–1997
Planning and information extraction
Weld coauthored the 1992 UCPOP planner paper with J. Scott Penberthy, followed by work on planning with incomplete information and changing conditions. He also coauthored the 1997 Wrapper Induction paper with Nick Kushmerick and Robert Doorenbos. These projects joined reasoning about actions with extracting information from web sources.
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1996–1999
Research and software ventures
Weld founded Netbot in 1996, AdRelevance in 1998 and Nimble in 1999. Netbot developed the Jango shopping-search tool. AAAI elected him a Fellow in 1999.
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As of October 2026
AI for research and human use
At Ai2, Weld is general manager and chief scientist of Semantic Scholar. His research includes human-centered AI, natural-language processing and intelligent interfaces.
Sources and credits
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