ITE101 Living in the Information Technology Era

Week 14
Learning Objectives:
1. To understand and appreciate the role of AI;
2. To be familiar with AI terminologies; and
3. To compare AI with human intelligence and traditional information processing and
discuss its strengths and limitations.

Artificial Intelligence Trends and Issues

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science concerned in making

computers behave like humans do. It was still in the ancient times that they were
dreaming to create intelligent machines that can engage on behaviors that humans
consider intelligent. It was only in the later years that smart machines is becoming in
reality. Many researchers now are creating systems that mimic human thought,
understand speech, and beat the best human chess player and countless other feats
never before possible.

Application of AI

Game playing refers to programming computers to play games such as chess and
checkers. The most common AI for game playing is chess. IBM had developed a
computer chess player named Deep Blue which won over the defending world champion
Gary Kasparov in 1997.

Speech recognition is a technology where computers recognize human language to

perform such task. In later years, speech recognition reached a practical level for limited
purposes. This technology supposedly will replace the use of keyboard because you will
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just give instructions to the computer. But human went back to the use of keyboard and
mouse because of convenience in using them.

Understanding natural language allows computers to understand natural human

languages. Research are still working in progress in developing systems that converse
in natural language, perceive and respond to their surroundings, and encode and
provide useful access to all human knowledge and expertise. Natural-language
processing offers the greatest potential rewards because it would allow people to interact
with computers without needing any specialized knowledge. You could simply walk up
to a computer and talk to it. Unfortunately, programming computers to understand
natural languages has proved to be more difficult than originally thought of.

Computer vision makes useful decisions about real physical objects and scenes based
on sensed images. This is to make images and objects as real as it can be. At present,
there are only limited ways of representing three-dimensional information directly, and
they are not as good as what humans evidently use.

Expert systems refer to programming computers to make decisions in real life situations
such as helping doctors diagnose disease based on symptoms. In the early 1980s,
expert systems were believed to represent the future of artificial intelligence and of
computers in general. To date, however, they have not lived up to the expectations.
Many expert systems help human experts in such fields as medicine and engineering,
but they are very expensive to produce and are helpful only in special situations.

Heuristic classification is one of the most feasible kinds of expert system given the
present knowledge of AI. This will put some information in one of a fixed set of categories
using several sources of information. An example is advising whether to accept a
proposed credit card purchase. Information is available about the owner of the credit
card, his record of payment and the item he is buying and about the establishment from
which he is buying it (e.g., about whether there have been previous credit card frauds at
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this establishment).

AI History
Turing’s Test is a test which analyzes or examines whether a computer has a
humanlike intelligence. It was proposed by a British mathematician. The computer is
said to pass the Turing’s test if the panel believes that the entity possesses humanlike
intelligence. Turing’s test is sometimes referred to as behavioral tests for the presence
of mind, or thought, or intelligence in putatively minded entities.

It was in a 1951 paper that Alan Turing proposed a test called “The Imitation
Game” which he thought would settle the issue of machine intelligence. The first version
of the game involved no computer intelligence whatsoever. Imagine three rooms, each
connected via computer screen and keyboard. In one room sits a man, in the second a
woman, and in the third sits a person who will serve as the "judge" who will decide as to
which of the two people talking to him through the computer is the man. The man will
attempt to help the judge, offering whatever evidence he can (the computer terminals
are used so that physical clues cannot be used) to prove his man-hood. The woman's
job is to trick the judge, so she will attempt to deceive him, and counteract her opponent's
claims, in hopes that the judge will erroneously identify her as the male.

Later on, Turing proposed a modification of the game. Instead of a man and a
woman as contestants, a human of either gender at one terminal, and/or a computer at
the other terminal will participate. Now, the judge's responsibility is to decide which of
the contestants is human, and which the machine is. Turing proposed that if, under these
conditions, the judge were less than 50% accurate – that is, if a judge is as likely to pick
either human or computer – then the computer must be a passable simulation of a
human being and hence, intelligent. The game has recently been modified so that there
is only one contestant, and the judge's job is not to choose between two contestants, but
simply to decide whether the single contestant is human or machine.
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Web Technology
Internet refers to a collection of computers and cables forming a communications
network, just like telephones and cables forming the telephone system. The Internet is
intended to carry computer data, similar to telephone network which is intended to carry
conversations. The Internet carries various data including email, videoconferences, and
instant messages. The Web page contents are another type of data that is carried over
the Internet. In other words, the Internet is a network of all networks where a user at any
computer, with permission, can access and get information from any other computer.

The Internet was envisioned by the Advanced Researched Projects Agency (ARPA) of
the US Government where they called it as ARPANET then. They aim to create a
network that would allow users of a research computer at one university to be able to
"talk to" research computers at other universities. This is because they wanted to protect
the messages that are being routed or rerouted in the event of a military attack or from
any other disaster that can destroy their communication.

Intranet is a private network contained in an enterprise that includes connections

through one or more gateway computers to the outside Internet. Its purpose is to share
company information and computing resources among employees. It can also facilitate
working in groups and teleconferences. On the other hand, extranet is a private network
that uses the Internet technology and the public telecommunication system to securely
share a part of a business's information or operations with suppliers, vendors, partners,
customers, or other businesses. An extranet can be viewed as part of a company's
intranet that is extended to users outside the company. It has also been described as a
"state of mind" in which the Internet is perceived as a way to do business with other
companies as well as to sell products to customers.

In order to use Internet, you must have a web browser installed on your computer to
access different web pages and sites. A web browser is an application software allowing
users to access and view web pages. A web page is a page consisting of HTML
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documents stored on a web server. In contrast, web sites are a collection of connected
web pages stored on a web server. The most popular web browsers nowadays are
Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox which is downloadable for free. The
appearance of a web page or site varies depending on the versions of the web browsers.
For higher versions of browsers, the animation and appearance of the page and site are
more enhanced because of their added support for animation, virtual reality, and sound
files.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) are the
two most important elements of the Web. Both contain “hypertext” in their names.
Hypertext is a key concept for understanding the Web. The idea of hypertext originated
much earlier than the Web, or even the Internet. An article called “As we may think”
written by an engineer named Vannevar Bush, in 1945 described a microfilm-based
machine called the Memex that could link associated information or ideas through
“trails”. The idea became known in the mid-1960s when Harvard graduate, Ted Nelson,
conceived the term “hypertext” to describe a computer system that could store literary
documents, link them according to logical relationships, and permit readers to comment
and annotate what they read.

Many areas of hypertext have become a reality on today’s Web. Every Web page is
based on a document stored in a file identified by a unique address, called a Uniform
Resource Locator (URL) or a web address. You can type the URL to the Address bar
of a web browser to access any documents. Another way is by clicking an underlined
word or phrase called a hypertext link (or simply “link” or “hyperlink”) to access related
documents. An example of a URL is http://www.google.com, while example of a link is
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlink

HTTP and HTML are the two basic building blocks from which today’s Web-style
hypertext is crafted. You’ll have a better grasp of how the Web works and its potential
for future development if you have some background on these building blocks.
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The two (2) major ingredients that define the Web are HTTP and HTML. You’ll have a
pretty complete list of the basic technologies that make the Web work.

A Web server stores one or more Web pages of a Web site. Each page is saved as an
HTML document. This document may be plain text, or ASCII, document with embedded
HTML tags. Some of these tags indicate how the document is to be displayed when
viewed in a browser. Other tags comprise links to related documents, sound files, and
graphics that are also stored on Web servers. Aside from storing these files, a Web
server runs a Web server software that carries requests for specific Web pages.

Web client software called a browser is used to surf the Web (as defined above). If you
type a URL into the browser’s Address box, you are actually requesting an HTML
document of the Web page that you want to view. The browser forms a request for the
specified file using a command provided by the HTTP communications protocol.

Meanwhile, the Web server is “listening” for any HTTP requests. When the request
arrives, the Web server examines it, locates the HTML document that is being
requested, and sends it back to the computer. When the request is fulfilled, the server
moves on to process other requests. If in case additional components are needed for
the Web page that the browser is displaying - a graphic, for instance, the browser must
issue a new request to the server for that component.

The Web is only one of the services that the Internet offers. They almost changed our
ways of communicating to others, such as through emails, discussion of certain topic,
and the likes. Many times, communications take place completely in writing – without
the parties ever meeting each other.

• Email, short for electronic mail, is the transmission of messages via a computer network.
It is the original service that the Internet offers. Before, only the scientists and researchers that
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work for government- sponsored projects to communicate to their colleagues based on other
locations uses this service. Today, email is said to be the primary source of communication
whether for personal or business purposes. Email programs are used to create, send, received,
forward, store, print, and delete messages. Such programs include Outlook and Outlook Express
which are the popular among other email programs.

• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is an Internet service that allows a user to upload and
download files from other computers on the Internet. Uploading refers to the process of
transferring a file to the Internet while downloading refers to the process of obtaining a file from
the Internet. The file refers to documents, graphics, and other objects from a computer server. An
FTP server is a computer that allows you to upload/download files. An FTP site is a collection of
files that reside in an FTP server.

• Newsgroups and Message Boards is an online area that allows a group of users to discuss
a particular topic. In such a discussion, one will send a message to a group then the other group
will read and respond to the message. Usenet is what they call the collection of tens of thousands
of newsgroup about multitude topics. Topics may include news, recreation, society, business,
science, and computers.

• Mailing Lists is another online service where email addresses are stored. All email
addresses stored in it receives the message when a user uses it. In essence, a mailing list is like a
distribution list usually used to group certain email addresses.

• Chat Rooms are a technology that consists of online and live communication over the
Internet. It is a location in the Internet server that allows users to have almost like a real-time
communication. Anyone in the chat room can participate in the conversation which usually is
specific to a particular topic. Before you can enter a chat room, you must be connected to a chat
server through a program called chat client which can also be downloaded from the web.

• Instant messaging is in essence a chat but you can choose certain users that you want to
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communicate with. Not like chat rooms that talk about a particular topic, IM allows you to
communicate all the topics that you want. Many users make use of IM for personal purposes but
be sure to always observe “Netiquettes”.

• Internet Telephony, commonly known as Voice over IP (Internet Protocol), allows the user
to speak to other users over the Internet using computers, mobile computer, or mobile devices.
You will need a high- speed Internet connection, Internet telephone service, and a microphone or
telephone to be able to use this technology and place a call.

The following are various types of web sites to choose and search from.

• Portals are sites that offers you a variety of Internet services such as search engine/or
subject directory, news, sports and weather, free web publishing services, reference tools such as
yellow pages, stock quotes and maps, shopping malls and auctions, email and other forms of
online communication.

• News web sites provides you newsworthy material including stories and articles relating
to current events, life, money, sports, and weather. Most news that is uploaded on the Internet is
not included in the print because it is the most updated media. Newspapers, televisions, and radios
are the ones that maintain the news web sites.

• Informational web sites contain factual information. Many government agencies provide
information such as tax codes, loans you can mortgage from SSS. Other organizations provide
information such as public transportation schedules and published research findings.

• Business/Marketing web sites provide you marketing and business contents that promotes
and sells products and services. Up to date, most business and marketing companies have their
own web sites where you can place your orders online and simply browse in their products.

• Educational web sites offer you exciting and challenging course in formal and informal
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teaching and learning. There exist many educational web sites that allow online training for
employees and classes for colleges. Most instructors use these types of web sites to enhance
classroom teaching by publishing course materials, grades, and other related class information.

• Entertainment web sites offer users an interactive and engaging environment. Popular
entertainment web sites offer music, videos, sports, games, ongoing web episodes, and the likes.
Other complicated web sites tie up with other networks to allow users to vote in their polls on
television shows.

• Advocacy web sites provide contents that describe a cause, opinion, or idea. Its purpose is
to convince the reader of the validity of the cause, opinion, or idea. These web sites usually
present views of a particular group or association.

• Blog, short for web log, is a journal format regularly updated that reflect to the interests,
opinions, and personalities of the author and sometimes the site visitors. These consist of ideas
and collection of thoughts in an informal style of a single individual. Personal web sites are a
private individual’s site usually not associated in any organization. This is usually about
someone’s interest that may contain their own images, favorite music and videos, and the likes
for some personal reasons. Some intend for job hunting and so they post their resumes. Some
simply want to share life experiences with the world.

A search engine is a program that finds web sites and pages. It helps the user find
particular information about certain topics or locate particular web pages for which they
do not know the exact web address. There are thousands of search engines available,
some are general and can perform searches on any topic but some restricts to certain
subjects like finding people, job hunting, or locating real estate.

A search text box is available. It is where you enter a topic, a subject or a keyword
which can be a simple word or phrases that will define the item about which you want
information. Search engines respond with results that include thousands of links to web
pages that answer in little or no bearing on your research.
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Google is the largest search engine in the web whose purpose is to organize the world’s
information and make it universally accessible and useful. Queries received by Google
reaches several hundred millions each day through its various services. As of February
2004, Google received 2.5 billion queries.

Google uses an algorithm called PageRank that ranks web pages which matches a given
search string. The algorithm computes a recursive figure of merit for web pages based
on the weighted sum of the PageRanks of the pages linking to them. Aside from indexes
and HTML that Google caches, there are other 13 file types that it can search: PDF,
Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, Flash SWF, plain text files, among others.
Yahoo! is the first navigational portal to the web created by Jerry Yang and David Filo,
both electrical engineering graduates at Stanford University. They built this portal by
creating and organizing their own favorite web sites in 1994. The next year, Yang and
Filo, together with some fellow students named it Yahoo! and released it to the Internet
community.

Yahoo! stands for Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle. What makes Yahoo! unique than
the others is that its staff members build the directory by assuming the role of a typical web
researcher.