Artificial Intelligence

Introduction

Spring 2008, Juris Vīksna

Outline

 What is AI?
 Subjects covered in the course
 Requirements
 Textbooks
 Other practical information
What is AI?

General definition:

AI is the branch of computer science that is concerned with the

automation of intelligent behavior.

 what is intelligent behavior?

 is intelligent behavior the same for a computer and a human?
What is AI?

Tighter definition:

AI is the science of making machines do things that would

require intelligence if done by people. (Minsky)

 at least we have experience with human intelligence

possible definition: intelligence is the ability to form plans to achieve

goals by interacting with an information-rich environment
What is AI?

Intelligence encompasses abilities such as:

 understanding language
 perception
 learning
 reasoning
What is AI?

Self-defeating definition:

AI is the science of automating intelligent behaviors currently

achievable by humans only.

 this is a common perception by the general public

 as each problem is solved, the mystery goes away and it's no longer
"AI"

successes go away, leaving only unsolved problems

What is AI?

Self-fulfilling definition:

AI is the collection of problems and methodologies studied by

AI researchers.

 AI ranges across many disciplines

computer science, engineering, cognitive science, logic, …
 research often defies classification, requires a broad context
Pre-history of AI

the quest for understanding & automating intelligence has

deep roots
4th cent. B.C.: Aristotle studied mind & thought, defined formal logic
14th–16th cent.: Renaissance thought built on the idea that all natural or
artificial processes could be mathematically analyzed and
understood
18th cent.: Descartes emphasized the distinction between mind & brain
(famous for "Cogito ergo sum")
19th cent.: advances is science & understanding nature made the idea
of creating artificial life seem plausible
 Shelley's Frankenstein raised moral and ethical questions
 Babbage's Analytical Engine proposed a general-purpose, programmable computing
machine -- metaphor for the brain
19th-20th cent.: saw many advances in logic formalisms, including
Boole's algebra, Frege's predicate calculus, Tarski's theory of
reference
20th cent.: advent of digital computers in late 1940's made AI a viable
 Turing wrote seminal paper on thinking machines (1950)
Pre-history of AI

birth of AI occurred when Marvin Minsky & John McCarthy

organized the Dartmouth Conference in 1956
 brought together researchers interested in "intelligent machines"
 for next 20 years, virtually all advances in AI were by attendees
 Minsky (MIT), McCarthy (MIT/Stanford), Newell & Simon (Carnegie),…

Marvin Minsky
John McCarthy
History of AI

the history of AI research is a continual cycle of

optimism & hype  reality check & backlash  refocus & progress 
…

1950's – birth of AI, optimism on many fronts

general purpose reasoning, machine translation, neural computing, …

 first
neural net simulator (Minsky): could learn to traverse a maze
 GPS (Newell & Simon): general problem-solver/planner, means-
end analysis
 Geometry Theorem Prover (Gelertner): input diagrams, backward
reasoning
 SAINT(Slagle): symbolic integration, could pass MIT calculus
exam
History of AI

1960's – failed to meet claims of 50's, problems turned out to

be hard!

so, backed up and focused on "micro-worlds"

within limited domains, success in: reasoning, perception,
understanding, …

• ANALOGY (Evans & Minsky): could solve IQ test puzzle

• STUDENT (Bobrow & Minsky): could solve algebraic word
problems
• SHRDLU (Winograd): could manipulate blocks using robotic arm,
explain self
• STRIPS (Nilsson & Fikes): problem-solver planner, controlled
robot "Shakey"
• Minsky & Papert demonstrated the limitations of neural nets
History of AI

1970's – results from micro-worlds did not easily scale up

so, backed up and focused on theoretical foundations,
learning/understanding

 conceptual dependency theory (Schank)

 frames (Minsky)
 machine learning: ID3 (Quinlan), AM (Lenat)

practical success: expert systems

 DENDRAL (Feigenbaum): identified molecular structure

 MYCIN (Shortliffe & Buchanan): diagnosed infectious blood
diseases
History of AI

1980's – BOOM TOWN!

cheaper computing made AI software feasible

success with expert systems, neural nets revisited, 5th Generation
Project

• XCON (McDermott): saved DEC ~ $40M per year

• neural computing: back-propagation (Werbos), associative
memory (Hopfield)
• logic programming, specialized AI technology seen as future
History of AI

1990's – again, failed to meet high expectations

so, backed up and focused : embedded intelligent systems, agents, …

hybrid approaches: logic + neural nets + genetic algorithms + fuzzy +
…

• CYC (Lenat): far-reaching project to capture common-sense

reasoning
• Society of Mind (Minsky): intelligence is product of complex
interactions of simple agents
• Deep Blue (formerly Deep Thought): defeated Kasparov in Speed
Chess in 1997
History of AI
Development of AI

 General Problem Solvers (1950’s)

 Power (1960’s)
 “Romantic” Period (mid 1960’s to mid 1970’s)
 Knowledge-based Approaches (mid 1970’s to mid
1990’s)
 Biological and Social Models (mid 1990’s to current)
General problem solvers

 use a generalized problem solving method (divide up

problems, work forward, work backward) and apply
approach to a VERY BROAD range of problems.

 limitations:
 hardware capabilities
 sometimes called "weak solution methods"
Examples of General Problem Solvers

 LOGIC THEORIST
 could prove 38 of the first 52 theorems in the Principia
Mathematica
 Journal of Symbolic Logic declined publishing an article with Logic
Theorist as a co-author

 GENERAL PROBLEM SOLVER

 used means-ends analysis to reduce the difference between the
current state and desired (end) state
 handled mathematical logic problems, hence not as general as
originally hoped
Power

 Throw immense computing power at certain types of

problems
 example: CHESS
 examine 10120 moves to consider all possibilities.
 advances that made this approach possible:
 more powerful hardware
 languages developed specifically for AI applications
Examples of General Problem Solvers
Romantic period

 Focus on computer understanding

 Hence concentrated on:
 natural language - particularly stories and dialog.
 Fundamental problem:
 what is "understanding"?
 Can a computer be said to understand things?
 Not clear how humans understand things, for instance
reading in young children.
Examples of Romantic Period

 SHRDLU - developed by Winograd

 understood and reasoned about its block world
 ELIZA - Rogerian therapist
 Newell and Simon examined human problem solving via
protocol analysis to determine how humans understand
things. Then created computer programs to generate a
similar trace.
SHRLDU

SHRLDU has just completed the command:

“Find a block which is taller than the one you are holding and put on the box”
Example of microworld.
Eliza sample dialog

 HUMAN: You are like my father in some ways.

 ELIZA: What resemblance do you see?
 HUMAN: You are not very aggressive, but I think you don’t want me
to notice that.
 ELIZA: What makes you think I am not very aggressive?
 HUMAN: You don’t argue with me.
 ELIZA: Why do you think I don’t argue with you?
 HUMAN: You are afraid of me.
 ELIZA: Does it please you to believe I am afraid of you?
 HUMAN: My father is afraid of everybody.
 ELIZA: What else comes to mind when you think of your father?
 HUMAN: Bullies.
Knowledge based approaches

 Flaws of previous approaches considered:

 General problem solving tries to apply a single
solution approach to a wide range of problems. The
general approaches were not as general as hoped
and more problem specific approaches could be
more powerful and simpler.
Knowledge based approaches

 Power approach tried to program optimal (highest

probability) approach. Human experts use
HEURISTICS (rules of thumb) to find a solution.
 Example: Chess masters don't look ahead very
many moves, as a POWER approach implies.
Instead they choose from a set of ‘good’ alternatives.
Knowledge based approaches

 Romantic period: true understanding may not be necessary to

achieve useful results.
 Feigenbaum, in a speech at Carnegie, challenged his former
professors to stop looking at "toy problems" and apply AI
techniques to "real problems".
 The key to solving real world problems is that these system
handle only a very specific problem area, a "narrow domain".
Biological and Social Models

 Neural Networks (connectionist models in the text book)

 Based on the brain’s ability to adapt to the world by modifying
the relationships between neurons.

 Genetic algorithms attempt to replicate biological evolution.

 Populations of competing solutions are generated.
 Poor solutions die out, better ones survive and reproduce with
‘mutations’ created.

 Software agents
 Semi-autonomous agents, with little knowledge of other agents
solve part of a problem, which is reported to other agents.
 Through the efforts of many agents a problem is solved.
Neural networks
Neural networks
Genetic algorithms
Genetic algorithms
Philosophical extremes in AI

Neats vs. Scruffies

 Neats focus on smaller, simplified problems that can be well-

understood, then attempt to generalize lessons learned
 Scruffies tackle big, hard problems directly using less formal
approaches

GOFAIs vs. Emergents

 GOFAI (Good Old-Fashioned AI) works on the assumption that

intelligence can and should be modeled at the symbolic level
 Emergents believe intelligence emerges out of the complex
interaction of simple, sub-symbolic processes
Philosophical extremes in AI

Weak AI vs. Strong AI

 Weak AI believes that machine intelligence need only mimic the

behavior of human intelligence

 Strong AI demands that machine intelligence must mimic the

internal processes of human intelligence, not just the external
behavior
Different views of AI

Strong view
 The effort to develop computer-based systems that behave
as humans.
 Argues that an appropriately programmed computer really is
a mind, that understands and has cognitive states.
 “The study is to proceed on the basis of the conjecture that
every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence
can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can
be made to simulate.” (From Dartmouth conference.)
Different views of AI

Weak view
 Use “intelligent” programs to test theories about how
human beings carry out cognitive operations.
 AI is the study of mental faculties through the use of
computational models.
 Computer-based system that acts in such a way (i.e.,
performs tasks) that if done by a human we would call it
‘intelligent’ or ‘requiring intelligence’.
Criteria for success

 long term: Turing Test (for Weak AI)

 as proposed by Alan Turing (1950), if a computer can make people
think it is human (i.e., intelligent) via an unrestricted conversation,
then it is intelligent
 Turing predicted fully intelligent machines by 2000, not even close
 Loebner Prize competition, extremely controversial

 short term: more modest success in limited domains

 performance equal or better than humans
e.g., game playing (Deep Blue), expert systems (MYCIN)

 real-world practicality $$$

e.g., expert systems (XCON, Prospector), fuzzy logic (cruise
control)
HAL’s last words, “2001: A Space Odyssey”

“Good afternoon, gentleman. I am HAL 9000

computer. I became operational at the HAL plant in
Urbana, Ill., on the 12th of January, 1992. My
instructor was Mr. Langley and he taught me to sing
a song. If you’d like to hear it, I can sing it for you.”

HAL’s last words, “2001: A Space Odyssey”

Turing test

AI system

Experimenter

Control
Appeal of the Turing Test
 Provides an objective notion of intelligence, i.e., compare
intelligence of the system to something that is considered
intelligent, avoiding debates over what is intelligence.

 Avoids debates of whether or not the system uses correct

internal processes.

 Eliminates biases toward living organisms since experimenter

communicates with both the AI system and the control (human)
in the same manner.

Alan Turing
Weaknesses of the Turing Test

 The breadth of the test is nearly impossible to achieve.

 Some systems exhibit characteristics similar to Turing’s criteria, yet

we would not label them ‘intelligent;’ e.g., ELIZA is easy to
unmask, it cannot pass a true interrogation.

 Focuses on symbolic, problem solving ignores perceptual skills and

manual dexterity which are important components of human
intelligence.

 By focusing on replicating human intelligence, researchers may be

distracted from the tasks of developing theories that explain the
mechanisms of human and machine intelligence and applying the
theories to solving actual problems.
The Chinese Room

She does
not know
Chinese

Correct
Chinese Responses
Writing is
given to
the person
Set of rules, in
English, for
transforming
phrases
The Chinese Room Scenario
 An individual is locked in a room and given a batch of
Chinese writing. The person locked in the room does not
understand Chinese.

 Next she is given more Chinese writing and a set of rules

(in English which she understands) on how to collate the
first set of Chinese characters with the second set of
Chinese characters.

 If the person becomes good at manipulating the Chinese

symbols and the rules are good enough, then to someone
outside the room it appears that the person understands
Chinese.
Does the person understand Chinese?

 Why?
 Why not?
The Chinese Room (cont.)

 Searle's, who developed the argument, point is that she doesn't

really understand Chinese, she really only follows a set of rules.
 Following this argument, a computer could never be truly
intelligent, it is only manipulates symbols. The computer does not
understand the semantic context.
 Searle’s criteria is “intentionality,” the entity must be intentionally
exhibiting the behavior, not simply following a set of rules.
 Intentionality is as difficult to define as intelligence.
 Searle excludes ‘weak AI’ from his argument against the possibility
of AI.
Searle’s argument created a huge response

This religious diatribe against AI, masquerading as a serious

scientific argument, is one of the wrongest, most infuriating articles I
have ever read in my life. ... I know that this journal is not the place
for philosophical and religious commentary, yet it seems to me that
what Searle and I have is, at the deepest level, a religious
disagreement and I doubt that anything I say could ever change his
mind. He insists on things he calls "causal intentional properties"
which seem to vanish as soon as you analyze them, find rules for
them, or simulate them. But what those things are, other than
epiphenomena, or innocently emergent qualities I don't know.
Goedel’s Theorem

The halting problem

For a given computer program P and given input data x,
output “yes” if the computation P(x) terminates and
output “no” otherwise.

The halting problem is undecidable (i.e. it is not solvable

by any computer program).
Goedel’s Theorem

1, Px(x) terminates
S(x) =
0, otherwise

Px(x) + 1, Px(x) terminates

T(x) =
0, otherwise
Goedel’s Theorem

T = Pk

Pk(k) + 1, Pk(k) terminates

Pk(k) =
0, otherwise
Goedel’s Theorem

M - an “intelligent” program

Px(x) + 1, Px(x) terminates

M(x) =
0 or does not terminate, otherwise

M = Pk
Goedel’s Theorem

M = Pk - an “intelligent” program

Pk(k) + 1, Pk(k) terminates

Pk(k) = 0 or,
does not terminate, otherwise
What is artificial intelligence?

 Arguments about AI seem to rapidly break down into

philosophical debates where there is probably no
absolute right or wrong answer.
 Note Hofstadter's comments about "religious"
disagreement. It often comes down to considering the
pros and cons of both sides, realizing that neither is
completely right (or completely wrong) and taking a
stand for one or the other.
 Which side you tend to fall on will, almost unavoidably,
be based on personal values.
Summary

 No universally accepted definition of intelligence.

 Definitions of intelligence is subject to change, which
makes it difficult to aim for! Similar to the situation in
linguistics and for comparative psychologists that have
taught primates sign language.
 "The Ultimate Limits of AI” - notice that these are really
sociological questions.
 This course will focus what has been achieved in AI.
However, be aware of these issues.
Branches of AI

 Games - study of state space search, e.g., chess

 Automated reasoning and theorem proving, e.g., logic
theorist
 Expert/Knowledge-based systems
 Natural language understanding and semantic modeling
 Model human cognitive performance
 Robotics and planning
 Automatic programming
 Learning
 Vision
Subjects covered in the course
 State space representations and search algorithms 3
 Decomposition spaces 2
 Game playing 2
 Automated reasoning (resolution methods) 3
 Neural networks 1
 Expert systems (???) 1
 Learning (Decision trees, Genetic algorithms, HMMs) 3

“Typical” AI subjects likely not to be covered

 Natural language processing

 Knowledge representation
 Planning systems
 “AI programming languages” - LISP, PROLOG etc.
Requirements
 2-4 theoretical homeworks
Must be submitted before the exam session
40% for all homeworks
 Programming assignment
Problem to be announced early in March
No deadline – must be submitted before the exam
40%
 Exam
20%
Optional
 To qualify for grade 10 you may be asked to cope
with some additional question(s)/problem(s)
Academic honesty

You are expected to submit only your own work!

Sanctions:

Receiving a zero on the assignment (in no circumstances

a resubmission will be allowed)

No admission to the exam and no grade for the course

Textbooks

Nils J. Nillson

Problem-Solving Methods in
Artificial Intelligence

McGraw-Hill, 1971.
Textbooks

Nils J. Nillson

Principles of Artificial
Intelligence

Morgan Kaufmann, 1986

Textbooks

Nils J. Nillson

Artificial Intelligence:
a New Synthesis  

Morgan Kaufmann, 1998

Textbooks

Rajan Shinghal

Formal Concepts in
Artificial Intelligence

Chapman & Hall, 1992

Textbooks

George F.Luger
William A.Stubblefield
Ronald L.Rivest

Artificial Intelligence and

the design of Expert Systems

Benjamin/Cummings, 1989
Textbooks

Elaine Rich
Kevin Knight

Artificial Intelligence

McGraw-Hill, 1991
Textbooks

Judea Pearl

Intelligent search strategies

for computer problem solving

Addison-Wesley, 1984
Textbooks

Nirmal .K.Bose
Ping Liang

Neural Network
Fundamentalswith Graphs,
Algorithms and Applications

McGraw-Hill, 1996
Textbooks

Roger Penrose

The emperors new mind

Web page

http://susurs.mii.lu.lv/juris/courses/ai2008.html

Is expected to contain:

• short summaries of lectures

• announcements
• power point presentations (when available)
• homework and programming assignment problems
• your grades (???)
• other relevant information
Contact information

Juris Vīksna

Room 421, Rainis boulevard 29

phone: 67213716