Introduction Artificial Intelligence

Chapter One
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

1.1 Definitions of AI: WHAT IS AI?

Perhaps a better starting point would be to ask, What is intelligence

Which an ability to deal with new situations; the ability to solve problems, to
answer questions, to devise plans, and so on.

Intelligence is ―the capacity to learn and solve problems‖ (Websters

dictionary).

In particular, it is the ability to solve novel problems, to act rationally and to act
like humans.

 AI is one of the newest disciplines. The field of artificial intelligence (AI),

attempts to understand intelligent entities.
 It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially
intelligent computer programs.
 AI builds and understands intelligent entities or agents.

Artificial Intelligence is the Science and Engineering that is concerned with

the theory and practice of developing systems that exhibit the characteristics
we associate with intelligence in human behaviour: perception, natural
language processing, reasoning, planning and problem solving, learning and
adaptation, etc.

Intelligence is the capability of observing, learning, remembering and

reasoning. AI attempts to develop intelligent agents.

Intelligence is composed of:

✓ Reasoning

✓ Learning

✓ Problem Solving

✓ Perception

✓ Linguistic Intelligence

Page 1
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

The concern of AI is to enable computers behave like human and emulate the
reasoning power of humans

Besides the definitions of AI, working issues in AI can be categorized within

three research and development types: Symbolic, Connectionist, and
Evolutionary. Each has its own characteristic strengths and weaknesses.

Symbolic AI (Symbol based approach to

learning)

• is based on logic
• It uses sequences of rules to tell the computer what to do next.

Connectionist AI (Neurally or biologically inspired approaches to learning)

• also referred to as neural system or Parallel Distributed Processing.

• Connectionism is inspired by the human brain.

1.2 Objectives of AI
To supplement natural intelligence for e.g we are building
intelligence in an object so that

it can do what we want it to do, as for example-- robots, thus

reducing human labor and reducing human mistakes. In
general, the specific goals of AI are:

 M a k e machines smarter (primary goal)

 Understand what intelligence is (Nobel Laureate
purpose)
 Make machines more useful (entrepreneurial purpose)

1.3 Types of AI(General and Specific AI)

The hypothesis of AI could be vied by different scholars in
to two views: the Strong AI and Weak AI based on the
intelligent behavior of humans.

 Weak AI (Applied AI or Narrow AI), in contrast, is simply the view that

intelligent behavior can be modeled and used by computers to solve
complex problems. That is the use of software to study or accomplish
specific problem solving or reasoning tasks that do not encompass (or
in some cases are completely outside of) the full range of human

Page 2
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

cognitive abilities. This point of view argues that just because a computer
behaves intelligently does not prove that it is actually intelligent in the way
that a human is.

 The followers of Strong AI believe that by giving a computer program

sufficient processing power, and by providing it with enough intelligence,
one can create a computer that can literally think and is conscious in the
same way that a human is conscious. Strong AI is also referred to as
"artificial general intelligence" or as the ability to perform "general
intelligent action". Many philosophers and Artificial Intelligence
researchers consider this view to be false, and even ludicrous. The
possibility of creating a robot with emotions and real consciousness is
one that is often explored in the realms of science fiction but is rarely
considered to be a goal of Artificial Intelligence.

1.4 Approaches to AI and Hypothesis of AI

Historically, there are four approaches to AI. As one might expect, a tension
exists between approaches centred on humans and approaches centred on
rationality. A human-centred approach must be an empirical science, involving
hypothesis and experimental confirmation. A rationalist approach involves a
combination of mathematics and engineering.

Approaches to AI do mean making

computer:

Think like a human (Thinking humanly)

Act like a human (Acting humanly)

Think rationally (Thinking rationally)

Act rationally (Acting rationally)

A. Thinking humanly: The cognitive modelling approach

If we are going to say that a given program thinks like a human, we must have
some way of determining how humans think: the actual workings of human
minds. There are two ways to do this: through introspection trying to catch our
own thoughts as they go by-and through psychological experiments. Once we
have a sufficiently precise theory of the mind, it becomes possible to express the
theory as a computer program. If the program's input/output and timing

Page 3
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

behaviors match corresponding human behaviors, that is evidence that some

of the program's mechanisms could also be operating in humans.

The interdisciplinary field of cognitive science brings together computer models

from AI and experimental techniques from psychology to try to construct precise
and testable theories of the workings of the human mind.

B. Thinking rationally: The "laws of thought" approach

The Greek philosopher Aristotle was one of the first to attempt to codify
"right thinking," that is, irrefutable reasoning processes. His syllogisms
provided patterns for argument structures that always yielded correct
conclusions when given correct premises-for example, "Socrates is a man; all
men are mortal; therefore, Socrates is mortal." These laws of thought were
supposed to govern the operation of the mind; their study initiated the field
called logic.

Logicians in the 19th century developed a precise notation for statements about
all kinds of things in the world and about the relations among them. The so-
called logicist tradition within artificial intelligence hopes to build on such
programs to create intelligent systems.

There are two main obstacles to this

approach.

Not easy to take informal knowledge and state it in the formal terms
required by logical notation, particularly when the knowledge is less than
100% certain.

There is a big difference between being able to solve a problem "in

principle" and doing so in practice.

C. Acting humanly: The Turing Test approach

The Turing Test, proposed by Alan Turing (1950), was designed to provide
a satisfactory operational definition of intelligence. Rather than proposing a long
and perhaps controversial list of qualifications required for intelligence, he
suggested a test based on in distinguishability from undeniably intelligent
entities-human beings. The computer passes the test if a human interrogator, after
posing some written questions, cannot tell whether the written responses come
from a person or not. Programming. Computer to pass the test provides

Page 4
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

plenty to work on. The computer would need to possess the following
capabilities:

Natural language processing to enable it to communicate

successfully in English.

knowledge representation to store what it knows or liears;

automated reasoning to use the stored information to answer questions

and to draw new conclusions;

Machine learning to adapt to new circumstances and to detect and

extrapolate patterns.

computer vision to perceive objects, and

Robotics to manipulate objects and move about.

The Turing test was designed by Turing as a way to judge the success or otherwise of an attempt to
produce a thinking computer. The interrogator is given access to two individuals, one of whom is a
human (B) and the other of whom is a computer (A). The interrogator (C) can ask the two individuals
questions, but cannot directly interact with them. Probably the questions are entered into a computer via a
keyboard, and the responses appear on the computer screen. The human is intended to attempt to help the
interrogator, but if the computer is really intelligent enough, it should be able to fool the interrogator into
being uncertain about which the computer is and which the human is. The human can give answers such
as ―I‘m the human—the other one is the computer,‖ but of course, so can the computer. The real way in
which the human proves his or her humanity is by giving complex answers that a computer could not be
expected to comprehend. Of course, the inventors of the truly intelligent computer program would have
given their program the ability to anticipate all such complexities.

Figure 1.1: Turing test technique

Page 5
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

D. Acting rationally: The rational agent approach

An agent (the Latin word to mean ager to do) is just something that acts
something. But computer agents are expected to have other attributes that
distinguish them from mere "programs" such as operating under autonomous
control, perceiving their environment. persisting over a prolonged time period,
adapting to change, and being capable of taking on another's goals.

A rational agent is one that acts so as to achieve the best outcome or, when there
is uncertainty, the best expected outcome.

In the "laws of thought" approach to AI, the emphasis was on correct inferences.
Making correct inferences is sometimes part of being a rational agent, because
one way to act rationally is to reason logically to the conclusion that a given
action will achieve one's goals and then to act on that conclusion.

All the skills needed for the Turing Test are there to allow rational actions. Thus,
we need the ability to represent knowledge and reason with it because this
enables us to reach good decisions in a wide variety of situations in the real
world.

For these reasons, the study of AI as rational-agent design has advantages

such as:

It is more general than the "laws of thought" approach, because correct

inference is just one of several possible mechanisms for achieving rationality.

It is more amenable to scientific development than are approaches based on

human behaviour or human thought because the standard of rationality is
clearly defined and completely general.

1.5 Foundation to AI
There were a lot of academic disciplines important to AI:

✓ Philosophy: Logic, methods of reasoning, mind as physical system,

foundations of learning, language, rationality.

✓ Mathematics: Formal representation and proof, computation, probability.

✓ Neuroscience: nuerons as information processing unit.

Page 6
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

✓ Psychology/ Cognitive Science: how do people behave, perceive, process

information, represent knowledge.

✓ Computer engineering: building fast computers

✓ Control theory: design systems that maximize an objective function over

time

✓ Linguistics: knowledge representation, grammar

1.6 Bits of History of AI

✓ 1943: early beginnings

• McCulloch & Pitts: Boolean circuit model of brain/ Invented Artificial

neurons

✓ 1950: Alan Turing

• Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence“ was invented

✓ 1956: birth of AI

Dartmouth Conference: "Artificial Intelligence“ name adopted

✓ 1965: Robinson's complete algorithm for logical reasoning

✓ 1969-79: Early development of knowledge based systems took place

✓ 1980-- AI becomes an industry

✓ 1986-- Neural networks return to popularity

✓ 1987-- AI becomes a science

✓ 1995-- The emergence of intelligent agents

✓ Currently: robotics, drones, self-driving cars etc

• is achieving its goals?

Page 7
Introduction Artificial Intelligence

Page 8