Lecture 1

◼ What is Artificial Intelligence ?

◼ Problem's characteristics in AI
◼ Brief history of AI
◼ AI domains
◼ AI applications

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Key Questions
◼ Is it possible to simulate intelligent behavior
on computers ?
◼ Which are the criteria based on which the
intelligence of a program is evaluated ?
◼ At which level the intelligent behavior tries
to be modelled ?
◼ Which are the representations and the
techniques used when solving AI problems ?

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1. What is AI ?
◼ Alan Turing - “Computing Machinery and
Intelligence”, 1950
◼ AI is the study of ideas which allow
computers to become intelligent

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AI Definition
◼ AI studies the creation of computer
systems and programs, which exhibit a
form of intelligence
◼ systems which can learn new concepts
◼ systems which can reason and deduce useful
concepts in a domain
◼ systems which can understand the natural
language or can perceive and process an image
◼ briefly systems which need intelligent abilities,
specific to humans

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AI Definition
◼ An intelligent program is a program which
exhibit a similar behavior with a human,
when it is faced with a similar problem
◼ It is not necessary for the program to solve
or to try to solve the problem in the same
way a human will do it
◼ AI is the study of the process through which
the computers can be trained to solve
problems, which, for the time being, are
better solved by humans
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AI Problems Nature
◼ The problems which must be solved have a
common characteristic
◼ They are difficult problems, that is NP-
complete
◼ Even using a powerful computer, this can
not solve a problem, with an O(eN) time
complexity algorithm, for a huge input
value N, in a reasonable time interval

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AI Problems Nature
◼ The researches in AI are directed towards
trying to decrease the complexity necessary
for searching the solution of NP-complete
problems
◼ In AI, heuristic functions are used, for
solving difficult problems
◼ In this way, intractable problems, from the
point of view of solving time, can become
possible to be solved, in many cases
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AI Problems Nature
◼ Another research direction in AI regards
solving trivial problems, which imply
common sense knowledge
◼ These problems include reasoning about
physical objects and their relationship, and
reasoning about actions and their
consequences

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AI Problems Nature
◼ Everybody knows that:
◼ an object can not be in two places
simultaneously
◼ a glass must not be dropped on the floor,
because it will break
◼ These behaviors are hardly characterized as
needing intelligence
◼ These behaviors are very difficult to be
modelled in a program
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AI Problems Nature
◼ Common sense knowledge can be used by every
human, but these must be explicitly represented in
a program, and their quantity is impressive
◼ Surprisingly, the researches in AI had better results
is domains like solving difficult problems, such as
games or theorem proving, or problems which
need human expertise in a certain domain, than in
domains which need common sense knowledge

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AI Problems Nature
◼ It was possible to build a program which
can prove complex mathematical theorems
and can discover new mathematical
concepts, but it was impossible to build a
program which know all the knowledge of a
two years old children

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AI Problems Nature
◼ Many researches in AI are directed to mimic
human capacities, like speaking, seeing,
hearing
◼ Image perception and recognition, natural
language understanding, natural language
synthesis are very challenging problems,
which imply complicated processing
algorithms and complex technical devices

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Turing Test
◼ The most famous criterion to estimate a program
intelligence is the Turing test
◼ In 1950, Alan Turing (1912-1954), famous British
mathematician, one of the founders of computer
science, proposed a test to evaluate if a machine
can have an intelligent behavior
◼ Turing stated for the first time the possibility of
human thinking simulation problem, using a
computer
◼ Turing describes the test which can distinguish
between an intelligent and a non-intelligent
behavior

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Turing Test
◼ A human communicates through a computer
terminal with two other terminals, placed in
neighbouring rooms, by asking questions
and receiving answers

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Turing Test
◼ The answers are given by a human at one of
the two terminals and by a computer
program at the second terminal
◼ Both terminals are hidden to the person
which asks questions
◼ If the person who asks questions can not
establish, after the dialogue, where is the
terminal from where the human answers
and where is the terminal from where the
computer program answers, then the
program has an intelligent behavior
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 Turing Test
◼ The program can be made to try to cheat the
person who asks questions
◼ If the program is asked a complex mathematical
computation, then several minutes pass until the
answer is received
◼ The most important problem raised by making
such a program for passing the test is the
quantity of information needed to the program,
considering that the questions can refer to
different domains, and the fact that the
questions are asked in natural language
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Turing Test
◼ Up to the present time, no program passes
the Turing test
◼ Nevertheless, the Turing test suggests a
measure for a program performances, if
limited domains are considered

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Turing Test
◼ A program for playing chess can have
similar performances to those of a master in
playing chess, but the opponent will never
know if he/she is playing chess with a
person or with a computer program
◼ In other domains, it is possible to compare
the performances of solving a problem by a
computer program to those of a human
expert, from the point of view of the
solution quality and of the solving speed
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2. Problems Characteristics in AI
◼ General characteristics
◼ Model dynamics
◼ Computational complexity
◼ Knowledge versus data
◼ Heuristic knowledge usage
◼ Uncertain knowledge usage
◼ Reasoning, inferences
◼ Autonomous behavior
◼ Adaptation/learning

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Inferences
◼ Inferences
◼ Inference rule
◼ Inference strategy (inference control)

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Inference Rules Examples
A Deductive Inferences
A→B Modus Ponens
B

nice(john) Non-deductive Inferences

nice(andrew)
x nice(x) Inductive Inference

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3. Brief History
◼ Dartmouth College Conference in 1956 –
the first four promoters of the domain: John
McCarthy, Marvin Minsky, Alen Newell,
and Herbert Simon
◼ 1956 - 1957 A. Newell, J. Shaw, and H.
Simon – the first automated theorem prover
- "The Logic Theorist"
◼ Starting from 1960, the first AI programs
appear
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Brief History
◼ 1965 J. A. Robinson – Resolution principle
◼ 1965 – DENDRAL - J. Lederberg and E.
Feigenbaum - expert system capable to synthetize
organic molecules structure, based on chemical
formulas and mass spectograms
◼ 1959 – Lisp Language (LISt Processing) - John
McCarthy (Dartmouth College)
◼ 1972 – Prolog Language (PROgrammation en
LOGique) - Alain Colmerauer (Marseille
University)
◼ 1983 – Smalltalk - Goldberg, Robson
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Brief History
◼ In 1970 – knowledge is important
◼ Knowledge Based Systems
◼ Knowledge Engineering
◼ MYCIN System - Buchanan, Shortliffe -
expert system used to diagnose blood
bacteria infection, Stanford University -
1974-1975
◼ Expert Systems

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Knowledge Characteristics
◼ Knowledge must be general
◼ Situations which has common properties
should be represented by common symbolic
structures and not punctually
◼ For knowledge which have not this
property, the memory quantity necessary to
describe the knowledges can increase
exponentially

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Knowledge Characteristics
◼ Knowledge of an intelligent system are in a
continuous change, because it reflects the
changes in the environment
◼ Knowledge's representation in a system
should easily model these changes and
should allow to develop incrementally the
knowledge base

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Knowledge Characteristics
◼ Knowledge's representation should facilitate
their acquisition
◼ The knowledge necessary in an intelligent
system is difficult or even impossible to be
formalized
◼ A representation can facilitate or can
embarrass this process

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Knowledge Characteristics
◼ Knowledge should be used in every
problem instance, even if it is incomplete or
partially correct
◼ Knowledge in an intelligent system must be
organized in a structure which correspond to
the way in which these will be used

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Knowledge Characteristics
◼ Knowledge must be represented, organized,
and used, such that to allow the system to
be transparent
◼ The user should inspect the knowledge used
when solving a problem and the inferences
based on which the problem was solved

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Observations
◼ These characteristics show the difference
between knowledge and data
◼ For instance, a doctor who treats a pacient
uses knowledge and data
◼ Data are represented by the pacient data
sheet: symptoms, previous diseases,
prescribed treatment, reaction to treatment

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Observations
◼ Knowledge used when treating the patient
represents everything the doctor learned
during faculty years and during his career,
through practice, study, experience, with
respect to the disease treatment
◼ These knowledge refers to facts, theories,
treatment, but also to heuristic knowledge
◼ So, knowledge requires and includes data
usage, but are more than these
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Heuristic Knowledge
◼ One of the most difficult problems of
knowledge representation in an intelligent
system is the heuristic knowledge
representation
◼ Heuristic knowledge represent a particular
form of knowledge used by humans to solve
complex problems

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Heuristic Knowledge
◼ Heuristic knowledge represent knowledge
used to judge correctly, to decide, to have a
behavior using a certain strategy or to use
common sense rules
◼ This knowledge type is neither formalized,
nor proved to be effective and sometimes
not even correct, but it is used frequently by
humans in many situations

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Heuristic Knowledge
◼ Heuristics are criteria, methods or principles
used to choose between different action
alternatives the one which promise to be the
most efficient for fulfilling a goal
◼ Heuristics represent tradeoffs between two
requirements: the necessity to work with
simple criteria and, at the same time, the
desire to see that these criteria make a
correct selection between good and bad
alternatives
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Programming Languages used in AI
◼ The programming languages must express,
at the symbolic level, the information
necessary to the AI programs
◼ A new programming paradigm appears –
descriptive or declarative programming,
in which solving a problem is done based
on the problem universe description, in
terms of objects, attributes and relationships
between these
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Programming Languages used in AI
◼ In order to increase the efficiency of
symbolic programming activity, a new class
of programming languages is developed –
declarative languages
◼ Functional languages and logic languages
are examples of declarative languages

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Definitions
◼ An inference method, or shortly inference,
is the procedure to obtain, at a certain
moment, new elements (facts) implied
directly by the elements of the
representation
◼ A control strategy is the process of
applying repeatedly the inference method,
in order to obtain the solution, as fast as
possible
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Definitions
◼ The inference method, together with the
control strategy, forms the inference engine
core of a knowledge-based system
◼ Due to the discovery and use of adequate
control strategies, AI programs managed to
solve difficult problems, which are NP-
complete, in an acceptable time, for
significant input dimensions

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Definitions
◼ Induction is a reasoning form which goes
from particular to general, from facts to
concepts
◼ There are two types of induction
◼ Complete induction – all the existent cases are
specified
◼ Incomplete induction – only a part of the
existent cases are specified
◼ Inductive inference is used in most learning
processes
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4. AI System Structure

Intelligent System

Action Perception
Environment
Interaction

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 4. AI System Structure

Inference Engine
Knowledge Base
Control Strategy

Environment
Interaction

User Interface Knowledge

Acquisition

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 5. AI Domains
◼ Knowledge representation, including ontologies
and Semantic Web
◼ Common sense reasoning
◼ Games
◼ Symbolic computation
◼ Automated theorem proving
◼ Knowledge acquisition and learning
◼ Perception – artificial vision, speech recognition
◼ Natural language understanding
◼ Automated speech synthesis 42
AI Nowadays
◼ AI is everywhere
◼ Comunications
◼ Process management
◼ Car driving
◼ Medicine
◼ Web applications
◼ Monitoring
◼ Rescue operations

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 AI Applications

Robocup
Alice agent (bot)

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Ambiental Intelligence (AmI)
◼ Multitouch screens are integrated in
different surfaces – walls, floors, tables
◼ Multitoe – a floor interface, controlled by
the users' feet

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 AmI

◼ Sixth Sense Project

◼ Sixth Sense Project – developed by Pranav
Mistry, researcher at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology’s Media Lab

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Internet of Things
◼ Make the most surrounding objects to be
interconnected, in order to function
efficiently, but also to learn and to adapt to
the user behavior
◼ It was identified and defined in 1999 by
Kevin Ashton, a British scientist

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Internet of Things
◼ Until 2022, 80 billions objects from all over
the world are estimated to be connected to
the Internet
◼ In 2010, 4 billions objects were connected
◼ In 2012, 15 billions objects were connected

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Internet of Things
◼ Persons using Nike+ FuelBand to monitor
the distance and the calories are already
using the Internet of Things
◼ In the United States, the homes already
have 10 interconnected devices, and the
number is estimated to increase up to 50 by
2022

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Internet of Things Scenarios
◼ An intelligent fridge, connected to the
Internet, which knows its content, retains
the foods you like and announces when the
milk is about to finish
◼ Moreover, it can order online the missing
things from the fridge

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Internet of Things Scenarios
◼ You forget the gas turned on ?
◼ Open a smartphone application and you can
turn it off, no matter where you are
◼ It is possible to make settings such that,
every time when you go out or you come
home, certain operations are automatically
performed
◼ Turn the lights on/off
◼ Control the heating system
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Internet of Things Scenarios
◼ Intelligent traffic lights, which adapt
themselves the time of green and red lights,
according to real time traffic
◼ Intelligent traffic lights are connected to the
car processor, in order to block the car to
pass the crossroad on the red light
◼ The car follow the carriage way, because
small sensors from the road marker painting
signal any dangerous deviation
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Internet of Things Scenarios
◼ Intelligent City – the communication
between all its systems (transport, water,
drainage, electricity, lighting) ensures
energetic efficiency, pollution reduction,
and citizens comfort augmentation
◼ South-Korean city Songdo is the first
“smart city”, in which the Internet of Things
is ubiquitous

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Observations
◼ Internet of Things presume the information
circulation from one point to another and its
usage for actual actions
◼ While the technology will advance and the
surrounding things intelligence will increase
by connectivity, it will be possible to think
at the scenario in which we can search on
Google the objects from the house

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