UCI 202: Computer-Based

Information Systems

Topic Notes
Topic No 5.: Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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MASENO UNIVERSITY

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Definition
 a subfield of computer science concerned with studying the thought processes of humans and re-creating the
effects of those processes via machines, such as computers and robots.
 Related fields include: Computer science, Biology, Psychology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Linguistics
among other fields.
 Ultimate goal of AI is to create computers that can simulate the abilities to Think, See, Hear, Walk, Talk, and
Feel.

Attributes of Intelligent Behavior

1. Think and reason
2. Use reason to solve problems
3. Learn or understand from experience
4. Acquire and apply knowledge
5. Exhibit creativity and imagination
6. Deal with complex or perplexing situations.
7. Respond quickly and successfully to new situations.
8. Recognize the relative importance of elements in a situation.
9. Handle ambiguous, incomplete, or erroneous information.

Domains of Artificial Intelligence

 AI applications can be grouped into three major areas: cognitive science, robotics, and natural interfaces.

1. Cognitive science
 Area of AI focusing on how human brain works and how humans think and learn i.e. Human Information
Processing.
 Applications include Expert systems, Fuzzy logic systems, Genetic Algorithms, Neural Networks, and Intelligent
Agents.

2. Robotics applications
 This technology produces robot machines with computer intelligence and computer controlled, human like
capabilities.
 This area include applications designed to give robots the power of sight, touch, dexterity (skill in handling and
manipulation), locomotion (ability to move over any terrain), and navigation (the intelligence to find one’s way to
a destination).

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3. Natural interface applications

 The goal of this area is to development of natural languages and speech recognition that enable natural use of
computers by humans.
 Other interfaces involve the development of multisensory devices that use a variety of body movements to
operate computers. Used in virtual reality.

Examples of Commercial Applications of AI

1. Decision support
 Situation assessment and resource allocation software that range from airlines and airports to logistics centers.
 Intelligent human-computer interface systems that can understand spoken language and gestures, and support
problem solving by supporting organization-wide collaborations to solve particular problems.
2. Information retrieval
 Database mining for marketing trend analysis, financial forecasting, maintenance costs reduction etc.
 Natural language technology to retrieve any sort of online information, from text to pictures, videos, maps, audio
clips etc.
 AI systems that distil large amounts of information into simple presentations.
3. Virtual reality
 Automated animation interfaces that allow users to interact with virtual objects via touch.
4. Robotics
 Machine-vision inspection systems for gauging, identifying, and inspecting products and providing competitive
advantage in manufacturing.

Expert Systems
 Expert systems are knowledge-based information systems that use software and a knowledge base about a
specific, complex application area to act as expert consultants to users in many business and technical
applications.
 Expert systems can either support decision makers or completely replace them.
 Because ESs can integrate and manipulate so much data, they sometimes perform better than any single expert
can.

Components of Expert Systems

 The Components of Expert Systems. An expert system contains the following components: knowledge base,
inference engine, user interface, blackboard (workplace), and explanation subsystem (justifier).

1. The knowledge base

 Contains knowledge necessary for understanding, formulating, and solving problems. It includes two basic
elements: (1) facts, such as the problem situation and
(2) rules that direct the use of knowledge to solve specific problems in a particular domain.

2. The inference engine

 Is essentially a computer program that provides a methodology for reasoning and formulating conclusions.

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 It enables the system to make inferences based on the stored knowledge.

 The inference engine is considered the brain of the ES.
3. The user interface
 Enables users to communicate with the computer.
 That communication can best be carried out in a natural language, usually in a question-and-answer format.
 In some cases it is supplemented by graphics.
 The dialogue between the user and the computer triggers the inference engine to match the problem symptoms
with the knowledge in the knowledge base and then generate advice.
4. The blackboard
 Is an area of working memory set aside for the description of a current problem, as specified by the input data.
 It is a kind of database.
5. Explanation subsystem or justifier.
 A unique feature of an ES is its ability to explain its recommendations.
 The explanation subsystem interactively answers questions such as the following: Why did the ES ask a certain
question? How did the ES reach a particular conclusion? What is the plan to reach the solution?

Expert Systems Application Areas

1. Decision management
o Systems that appraise situations or consider alternatives and make recommendations based on criteria
supplied during the discovery process.
o Examples: Loan portfolio analysis, Employee performance evaluation, Insurance underwriting,
Demographic forecasts.
2. Diagnostics/Troubleshooting
o Systems that infer underlying causes from reported symptoms and history.
o Example: Equipment calibration, help desk operations, software debugging, medical diagnosis.
3. Design/configuration
o Systems that help configure equipment components, given existing constraints.
o Example: Computer option installation, manufacturability studies, communication networks, optimum
assembly plan
4. Selection/classification
o Systems that help users choose products or processes, often from a large or complex set of
alternatives.
o Examples: material selection, delinquent account identification, information classification, suspect
identification
5. Process monitoring
o Systems that monitor procedures or processes.
o Examples: production monitoring, chemical testing
6. Process control
o Systems that control procedures or processes.
o Examples: machine control, inventory control
7. Instruction management
o Diagnosing, debugging, and correcting student performance
8. Planning
o Developing plans to achieve goal(s)
9. Prediction
o Inferring likely consequences of given situations

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Benefits of Expert Systems

1. Increased output and productivity
o ESs can configure components for each custom order, increasing production capabilities.
2. Increased quality
o ESs can provide consistent advice and reduce error rates.
3. Capture and dissemination of scarce expertise
o Expertise from anywhere in the world can be obtained and used.
4. Operation in hazardous environments
o Sensors can collect information that an ES interprets, enabling human workers to avoid hot,
humid, or toxic environments.
1. Reliability
o ESs do not become tired or bored, call in sick, or go on strike.
o They consistently pay attention to details.
2. Ability to work with incomplete or uncertain information
o Even with an answer of “don’t know,” ES can produce an answer, although it may not be a
definite one.
3. Provision of training
o The explanation facility of an ES can serve as a teaching device and knowledge base for
novices.
4. Enhancement of decision making and problem-solving capabilities
o ESs allow the integration of expert judgment into analysis (for example, diagnosis of
machine and problem malfunction and even medical diagnosis).
5. Decreased decision-making time
o ESs usually can make faster decisions than humans working alone.
6. Reduced downtime
o ESs can quickly diagnose machine malfunctions and prescribe repairs.
7. Multiple experts
o Captures knowledge of multiple experts into a computer system.
8. Knowledge preservation
o Helps preserve and reproduce the knowledge of human experts

Major limitations of expert systems

1. Limited focus
o Can only solve specific types of problems and in a limited domain of knowledge.
2. Inability to learn
o They cannot learn from experience
3. Maintenance problems
o They can’t maintain themselves. They must be updated.
4. Development and maintenance costs
o Typically costly and time consuming

Neural Networks
 Are computing systems modeled after the brain’s mesh-like network of interconnected processing elements,
called neurons .

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 The interconnected processors in a neural network operate in parallel and interact dynamically.
 This interaction enables the network to “learn” from data it processes. That is, it learns to recognize patterns and
relationships in these data. The more data examples it receives as input, the better it can learn to duplicate the
results of the examples it processes.
 Thus, the neural network will change the strengths of the interconnections between the processing elements in
response to changing patterns in the data it receives and the results that occur.
 For example, a neural network can be trained to learn which credit characteristics result in good or bad loans.
Developers of a credit evaluation neural network could provide it with data from many examples of credit
applications and loan results to process, with opportunities to adjust the signal strengths between its neurons.
The neural network would continue to be trained until it demonstrated a high degree of accuracy in correctly
duplicating the results of recent cases. At that point, it would be trained enough to begin making credit
evaluations of its own..

Fuzzy Logic
 Fuzzy logic is a method of reasoning that resembles human reasoning, in that it allows for approximate values
and inferences (fuzzy logic) and incomplete or ambiguous data (fuzzy data) instead of relying only on crisp data
, such as binary (yes/no) choices.
 Examples of applications of fuzzy logic are numerous in Japan but rare in the United States. The United States
has preferred to use AI solutions like expert systems or neural networks, but Japan has implemented many fuzzy
logic applications, especially the use of special-purpose fuzzy logic microprocessor chips, called fuzzy process
controllers.
 Thus, the Japanese ride on subway trains, use elevators, and drive cars that are guided or supported by fuzzy
process controllers made by Hitachi and Toshiba.
 Many models of Japanese-made products also feature fuzzy logic microprocessors. The list is growing and
includes autofocus cameras, autostabilizing camcorders, energy-efficient air conditioners, self-adjusting washing
machines, and automatic transmissions.

Genetic Algorithms
 The use of genetic algorithms is a growing application of artificial intelligence. Genetic algorithm software uses
Darwinian (survival of the fittest), randomizing, and other mathematical functions to simulate an evolutionary
process that can yield increasingly better solutions to a problem.
 Genetic algorithms were first used to simulate millions of years in biological, geological, and ecosystem evolution
in just a few minutes on a computer.
 Genetic algorithm software is being used to model a variety of scientific, technical, and business processes.
 Genetic algorithms are especially useful for situations in which thousands of solutions are possible and must be
evaluated to produce an optimal solution.
 Genetic algorithm software uses sets of mathematical process rules ( algorithms) that specify how combinations
of process components or steps are to be formed. This process may involve trying random process
combinations ( mutation), combining parts of several good processes ( crossover ), and selecting good sets of
processes and discarding poor ones ( selection )to generate increasingly better solutions.

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Virtual Reality
 Virtual reality (VR) is computer-simulated reality. Virtual reality is a fast-growing area of artificial intelligence
that had its origins in efforts to build more natural, realistic, multisensory human–computer interfaces. So virtual
reality relies on multisensory input/output devices such as a tracking headset with video goggles and stereo
earphones, a data glove or jumpsuit with fiber-optic sensors that track your body movements, and a walker
that monitors the movement of your feet. Then you can experience computersimulated “virtual worlds” three-
dimensionally through sight, sound, and touch.
 Virtual reality is also called telepresence
 .For example, you can enter a computer-generated virtual world, look around and observe its contents, pick up
and move objects, and move around in it at will. Thus, virtual reality allows you to interact with computer
simulated objects, entities, and environments as if they actually exist. See

 There has been increasing interest in the potential social impact of new virtual reality technologies. It is believed
by many that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity. For example:

a. Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity and will be used in various human ways.
b. Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal communication, and cognition (i.e.,
virtual genetics).
c. As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be a gradual “migration to virtual space,” resulting in
important changes in economics, worldview, and culture.

d. The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human rights into virtual space, to promote
human freedom and well-being or to promote social stability as we move from one stage in sociopolitical
development to the next.

e. Virtual reality will soon engage all of the senses including smell, taste, and touch.
.

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Intelligent agents
 Intelligent agents are growing in popularity as a way to use artificial intelligence routines in software to help
users accomplish many kinds of tasks in e-business and e-commerce.
 An intelligent agent is a software surrogate for an end user or a process that fulfills a stated need or activity. An
intelligent agent uses its built-in and learned knowledge base about a person or process to make decisions and
accomplish tasks in a way that fulfills the intentions of a user.
 Sometimes an intelligent agent is given a graphic representation or persona, such as Einstein for a science
advisor, Sherlock Holmes for an information search agent, and so on.
 Thus, intelligent agents (also called software robots or “bots”) are special-purpose, knowledge-based
information systems that accomplish specific tasks for users.
 The wizards found in Microsoft Office and other software suites are among the most well-known examples of
intelligent agents. These wizards are built-in capabilities that can analyze how an end user is using a software
package and offer suggestions on how to complete various tasks. Thus, wizards might help you change
document margins, format spreadsheet cells, query a database, or construct a graph. Wizards and other
software agents are also designed to adjust to your way of using a software package so that they can anticipate
when you will need their assistance.
 The use of intelligent agents is growing rapidly as a way to simplify software use, search Web sites on the
Internet and corporate intranets, and help customers do comparison shopping among the many e-commerce
sites on the Web.
 Intelligent agents are becoming necessary as software packages become more sophisticated and powerful, as
the Internet and the World Wide Web become more vast and complex, and as information sources and e-
commerce alternatives proliferate exponentially.
 In fact, some commentators forecast that much of the future of computing will consist of intelligent agents
performing their work for users.

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