AI 2008, the 21st Australasian Joint Conference on Arti cial Intelligence, was, for the ?rst time, held in New Zealand,in Auckland during December 1–5,2008. The conference was hosted by Auckland University of Technology. AI 2008attracted 143 submissions from 22 countries,of which 42 (29%) were accepted as full papers and 21 (15%) as short papers. Submissions were subject to a rigorous review process. Each paper was reviewed by at least three (often four,andinonecase,six)membersoftheProgrammeCommittee.Authorscould then provide a “rebuttal” to these reviews. The Senior Programme Committee members coordinated discussion on the papers to provide a recommendation of acceptance or rejection to the Programme Committee Co-chairs. Both full papers and short papers were presented at the conference. We would ?rst like to thank all those who submitted papers to AI 2008. Specialthanks to the ProgrammeCommittee members for their detailed reviews completedinatimelymanner,andtotheSeniorProgrammeCommitteefortheir consideredjudgements andrecommendationsonthepapers.We aresureauthors would like to know that the rebuttal and subsequent discussion phases made a di erence to the outcome in numerous cases. We are con dent that this process has improved the decision making for ?nal paper selection, and that the overall quality and reputation of the conference is enhanced as a result. Thanks also to EasyChair for the use of their conference management system to facilitate this complex process and the preparation of these proceedings.
