Software Program Provides Early Warning of Potential Auto Safety Issues

                  Findings for Ford Explorer Made Available

    HARTSDALE, N.Y., Aug. 23 Virtual Gold, Inc., a leading
next-generation data mining software company announced today the availability
of a computer program (CarMiner) that will enable users to test their theories
and evaluate information about vehicles involved in fatal crashes. If a theory
presented to CarMiner is incomplete or inaccurate, the program automatically
highlights statistics in the FARS (Fatality Analysis Research System) data
that give the user a more accurate picture.

    CarMiner is based on a new approach to data mining called causative
analysis, the latest brainchild of Dr. Inderpal Bhandari, Founder & CEO of
Virtual Gold. The approach involves the use of a computer model of what
statistical patterns make sense from the standpoint of physical causality and
real-world impact.

    Dr. Bhandari explained the benefits. "It turns out that using a computer
model of causality makes it easier to assess the impact of the trillions of
partial and conditional relationships that exist among variables in high-
dimensional data. That, in turn, makes it possible to automatically evaluate
very large numbers of patterns efficiently, since most can be eliminated
rapidly from consideration. Finally, it makes it easy for non-technical
decision makers to use powerful analysis methods since everyone has a
commonsense idea of what causality and real-world impact are. I expect that
such models will be used routinely by the next generation of data mining
software." Causative analysis is now an integral part of Virtual Gold's
VirtualMiner technology platform that was used to develop CarMiner.

    Virtual Gold also announced the availability of a report on the experience
of using CarMiner to study the Ford Explorer. The report addresses questions
of current interest pertaining to tire-related, rollover-related,
driver-maneuver-related, and in-car-death- related fatal crashes involving
Ford Explorer and other comparable sport utility vehicle (SUV) during the
period 1995-1999. By examining the relationships that exist among 120
vehicle-related and driver-related attributes in the FARS data of over 10,000
fatal crashes, the FARS statistics highlighted automatically by CarMiner
provide insight over and beyond what appears to be presently known about these
questions. They can serve to provide early warnings of potential safety issues
that should be addressed.

    Virtual Gold estimated that there could be as many as 344 trillion partial
relationships among the 120 attributes in the FARS data on SUV's, suggesting
why it was all but inevitable that CarMiner would discover knowledge to shed
light on these questions about Ford Explorer. CarMiner processes this data
efficiently on a standard personal computer, which is suggestive of the power
of causative analysis. The report introduces the concepts that underlie
causative analysis and is written for a wide, non-technical audience. The
company also plans to conduct analyses on other models of SUVs, cars and
trucks in the near future.

    Dr. Bhandari, Virtual Gold's Founder and CEO, was prompted to apply the
company's award winning data mining technology to the FARS database after
reading an article in the New York Times. The article noted that "examining
the (FARS) data without a clear idea of what it contains is much harder than
finding clues once a problem is known," explaining the challenge faced by
Ford, Firestone and federal safety regulators in identifying such problems
before they are known.

     CarMiner is intended for automobile makers, insurance companies, banks,
U.S. and non- U.S. government agencies, not-for-profit organizations,
automobile consumers, and web sites for automobile consumers. Customers can
use CarMiner as an Internet-based service to test their own theories and
evaluate information about vehicles in the FARS or other databases. CarMiner
is also available as a software platform. Details may be found at
http://www.virtualgold.com/CarMiner/. Parties interested in business
development opportunities should contact Thomas J. Martin,
(thomas.martin@virtualgold.com) Executive Vice President, who is responsible
for taking Virtual Gold's next generation data mining software to market.