Expert System
The expert system is a part of AI, and the first ES was developed in the year
1970, which was the first successful approach of artificial intelligence. It solves
the most complex issue as an expert by extracting the knowledge stored in its
knowledge base. The system helps in decision making for compsex problems
using both facts and heuristics like a human expert. It is called so because it
contains the expert knowledge of a specific domain and can solve any complex
problem of that particular domain. These systems are designed for a specific
domain, such as medicine, science, etc.
The performance of an expert system is based on the expert's knowledge stored
in its knowledge base. The more knowledge stored in the KB, the more that
system improves its performance.
Characteristics of Expert System
o High Performance: The expert system provides high performance for
solving any type of complex problem of a specific domain with high
efficiency and accuracy.
o Understandable: It responds in a way that can be easily understandable
by the user. It can take input in human language and provides the output
in the same way.
o Reliable: It is much reliable for generating an efficient and accurate
output.
o Highly responsive: ES provides the result for any complex query within
a very short period of time.
Components of Expert System
An expert system mainly consists of three components:
o User Interface
o Inference Engine
o Knowledge Base
Need of the ES
1. No memory Limitations: It can store as much data as required and can
memorize it at the time of its application. But for human experts, there
are some limitations to memorize all things at every time.
2. High Efficiency: If the knowledge base is updated with the correct
knowledge, then it provides a highly efficient output, which may not be
possible for a human.
3. Expertise in a domain: There are lots of human experts in each domain,
and they all have different skills, different experiences, and different
skills, so it is not easy to get a final output for the query. But if we put the
knowledge gained from human experts into the expert system, then it
provides an efficient output by mixing all the facts and knowledge
4. Not affected by emotions: These systems are not affected by human
emotions such as fatigue, anger, depression, anxiety, etc.. Hence the
performance remains constant.
5. High security: These systems provide high security to resolve any query.
6. Considers all the facts: To respond to any query, it checks and considers
all the available facts and provides the result accordingly. But it is
possible that a human expert may not consider some facts due to any
reason.
7. Regular updates improve the performance: If there is an issue in the
result provided by the expert systems, we can improve the performance of
the system by updating the knowledge base.
Advantages of Expert System
These systems are highly reproducible.
They can be used for risky places where the human presence is not safe.
Error possibilities are less if the KB contains correct knowledge.
The performance of these systems remains steady as it is not affected by
emotions, tension, or fatigue.
They provide a very high speed to respond to a particular query.
Limitations of Expert System
The response of the expert system may get wrong if the knowledge base
contains the wrong information.
Like a human being, it cannot produce a creative output for different
scenarios.
Its maintenance and development costs are very high.
Knowledge acquisition for designing is much difficult.
For each domain, we require a specific ES, which is one of the big
limitations.
It cannot learn from itself and hence requires manual updates.
Applications of Expert System
In designing and manufacturing domain
It can be broadly used for designing and manufacturing physical devices
such as camera lenses and automobiles.
In the knowledge domain
These systems are primarily used for publishing the relevant knowledge
to the users. The two popular ES used for this domain is an advisor and a
tax advisor.
In the finance domain
In the finance industries, it is used to detect any type of possible fraud,
suspicious activity, and advise bankers that if they should provide loans
for business or not.
In the diagnosis and troubleshooting of devices
In medical diagnosis, the ES system is used, and it was the first area
where these systems were used.
Planning and Scheduling
The expert systems can also be used for planning and scheduling some
particular tasks for achieving the goal of that task.
Blackboard System
The blackboard system, within the AI domain, is a problem-solving architecture
that enables cooperative processing among multiple knowledge sources to
address complex issues. This system consists of a central knowledge repository,
known as the blackboard, and multiple specialized modules or agents that
collectively contribute to problem-solving by sharing information and insights.
The blackboard system serves as a collaborative platform where these modules
work together to reach a solution.
The essential components of a blackboard system include:
Blackboard: The central repository where data and hypotheses are stored
and updated by various agents.
Knowledge Sources or Agents: Specialized modules or agents that
possess expertise in specific areas and contribute to the collective
problem-solving process.
Control Strategy: The mechanism that coordinates the activities of the
knowledge sources and manages the problem-solving process.
Significance of Blackboard Systems in AI
The concept of blackboard systems holds significant importance in the AI field
due to several key factors:
1. Collaborative Problem-Solving: Blackboard systems promote
collaborative problem-solving by leveraging the expertise of multiple
knowledge sources, thus enabling more effective resolution of complex
issues.
2. Flexibility and Adaptability: These systems enhance the adaptability and
flexibility of AI models, allowing them to integrate diverse insights and
adjust their approaches based on the changing problem context.
3. Addressing Complexity: Blackboard systems are particularly effective in
addressing complex, multifaceted problems that require the integration of
different perspectives and areas of expertise.
Advantages of Blackboard Systems in AI
Enhanced Problem-Solving: By leveraging collective intelligence,
blackboard systems enhance the problem-solving capabilities of AI,
particularly in addressing multifaceted issues.
Adaptive and Flexible: These systems exhibit adaptability and flexibility,
accommodating diverse knowledge sources and adjusting problem-
solving approaches as required.
Collaborative Innovation: The collaborative nature of blackboard systems
fosters innovative solutions by integrating multifaceted insights and
expertise.
Limitations and Challenges
Complexity of Integration: Integrating diverse knowledge sources within
a blackboard system can be challenging, especially in contexts where data
formats and representations vary significantly.
Execution Overhead: The coordination and synchronization of knowledge
sources within the blackboard system may introduce computational
overhead in certain scenarios, impacting real-time performance.
Truth Maintenance System
A truth maintenance system is a knowledge representation and reasoning system
designed to manage inconsistent and uncertain information. It helps maintain a
consistent and coherent view of the world by tracking the beliefs and
assumptions used to derive conclusions. It is used to detect and resolve conflicts
between different beliefs and assumptions.
The TMS works by keeping a record of all the beliefs or facts in the knowledge
base, along with the reasoning that led to them. When new information is added
to the knowledge base, the TMS checks to see if it is consistent with the existing
beliefs. If it is not, the TMS identifies the conflicting beliefs and tries to resolve
the inconsistency by removing or modifying one or more of them. This process
is called “belief revision.”
Truth Maintenance System working
At its core, a TMS is a set of algorithms and data structures used to represent
and manage the beliefs and assumptions of a knowledge-based system. These
beliefs and assumptions are organized into a knowledge base, represented as
logical assertions that can be either true or false.
When new information is added to the system, the TMS checks if it is consistent
with the existing knowledge base. If it is consistent, it is added to the knowledge
base. If it is not consistent, the TMS may either reject the new information or
modify the existing beliefs and assumptions to make them consistent with the
new information.
When new information is added to the knowledge base, the TMS checks to see
if it is consistent with the existing beliefs. If there is a conflict, the TMS
identifies the conflicting beliefs and tries to resolve the inconsistency by
removing or modifying one or more of them. This process is called “belief
revision.” To facilitate this process, the TMS also keeps track of the
dependencies between different beliefs. If one belief is based on another belief,
the TMS ensures that the latter belief is still valid before accepting the former.
Applications of Truth Maintenance Systems:
Truth maintenance systems (TMS) can have a wide range of applications in
various domains. Some of the common applications of TMS include:
1. Expert systems: TMS can be used in expert systems to maintain the
consistency of knowledge and trace the consequences of actions taken by
the system.
2. Robotics: TMS can be used in robotics to ensure the consistency of
sensor data and trace the consequences of robot actions.
3. Natural language processing: TMS can be used in natural language
processing to maintain consistency in the interpretation of a text and to
trace the consequences of text processing.
4. Planning and scheduling: TMS can be used in planning and scheduling
applications to maintain consistency in the scheduling of tasks and to
trace the consequences of schedule changes.
5. Decision support systems: TMS can be used in decision support systems
to maintain consistency in the decision-making process and to trace the
consequences of decisions.
6. Diagnosis and troubleshooting: TMS can be used in diagnosis and
troubleshooting applications to maintain consistency in the diagnosis
process and trace the consequences of troubleshooting actions.
Benefits of the Truth Maintenance System:
1. Consistency maintenance: TMS can ensure that the beliefs in an AI
system remain consistent even when new information is added or old
information is modified. This can help prevent contradictory beliefs from
causing errors in the system.
2. Explanation generation: TMS can generate explanations for why certain
beliefs are held or actions were taken by tracing them back to their
sources. This can help improve the transparency and accountability of AI
systems.
3. Error detection and diagnosis: TMS can detect and diagnose errors in
an AI system by tracing them back to their sources. This can help identify
and correct problems in the system.
4. Efficient reasoning: TMS can improve the efficiency of reasoning in an
AI system by only updating beliefs and actions that are affected by new
information or changes. This can reduce the computational resources
required for reasoning.
5. Incremental learning: TMS can support incremental learning by
allowing new information to be added to the system without requiring the
entire system to be re-evaluated. This can improve the scalability and
adaptability of AI systems.
Drawbacks of the Truth Maintenance System:
While there are several benefits of using a truth maintenance system (TMS) in
AI, there are also some drawbacks that should be considered. These include:
1. Complexity: TMS can be complex to implement and maintain, especially
in large and complex AI systems. This can require significant expertise
and resources, which can be a barrier to adoption.
2. Computational overhead: TMS can introduce additional computational
overhead to the reasoning process, which can slow down the system and
increase the resources required.
3. The overhead of explanation generation: While explanation generation
can be a benefit of TMS, it can also introduce additional computational
overhead and require significant resources to generate and store
explanations for all beliefs and actions in the system.
4. Limited applicability: TMS may not be suitable for all AI applications
and may only be useful in certain domains or problem spaces.
5. Limited scalability: TMS may not scale well to very large or complex
knowledge bases, which can limit its usefulness in certain applications.
Applications of Expert Systems
Machine Learning
A subset of artificial intelligence known as machine learning focuses primarily
on the creation of algorithms that enable a computer to independently learn
from data and previous experiences. Machine learning algorithms create a
mathematical model that, without being explicitly programmed, aids in making
predictions or decisions with the assistance of sample historical data, or training
data. For the purpose of developing predictive models, machine learning brings
together statistics and computer science. Algorithms that learn from historical
data are either constructed or utilized in machine learning. The performance will
rise in proportion to the quantity of information we provide.
Machine Learning working
A machine learning system builds prediction models, learns from previous data,
and predicts the output of new data whenever it receives it. The amount of data
helps to build a better model that accurately predicts the output, which in turn
affects the accuracy of the predicted output.
Features of Machine Learning:
o Machine learning uses data to detect various patterns in a given dataset.
o It can learn from past data and improve automatically.
o It is a data-driven technology.
o Machine learning is much similar to data mining as it also deals with the
huge amount of the data.
Need for Machine Learning
The demand for machine learning is steadily rising. Because it is able to
perform tasks that are too complex for a person to directly implement, machine
learning is required. Humans are constrained by our inability to manually access
vast amounts of data; as a result, we require computer systems, which is where
machine learning comes in to simplify our lives.
Unsupervised Learning
Unsupervised learning is a learning method in which a machine learns without
any supervision.
The training is provided to the machine with the set of data that has not been
labeled, classified, or categorized, and the algorithm needs to act on that data
without any supervision. The goal of unsupervised learning is to restructure the
input data into new features or a group of objects with similar patterns.
In unsupervised learning, we don't have a predetermined result. The machine
tries to find useful insights from the huge amount of data. It can be further
classifieds into two categories of algorithms:
o Clustering
o Association
