Chapter 2

INTRODUCTION TO
EXPERT SYSTEMS

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 Books
 A Guide to Expert Systems, Donald A.
Waterman, First International Student
Edition, Addison Wesley, Thomson
Press, India, 2001.
 Introduction to Expert Systems, Peter
Jackson, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley,
Pearson Educational Asia, 1999.

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 1. A Little History
Goal of AI Scientists:
1.Computer programs that could think in some
way
2.Solve problems considered intelligent if done
by man

1960s: General methods – general purpose

programs – no breakthroughs – too difficult
and ultimately fruitless

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1970s: General methods in more specialized
programs –
 representation: how to formulate the problem

 search: control the search – not too long nor too

much memory

1980s: Problem-solving power of program from

knowledge – not from formalisms and inference
schemes
To make a program intelligent, provide it with lots of
high quality, specific knowledge about some problem
area.

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 Artificial Intelligence (AI):
AI is a branch of computer science concerned
with the design and implementation of
programs that are capable of emulating
human cognitive skills such as problem
solving, visual perception and language
understanding.

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 Expert Systems
(Knowledge based systems):
 Defn 1: A computer program using expert
knowledge to attain high levels of
performance in a narrow problem area.

 Defn 2: An expert system is a computer

program that represents and reasons with
knowledge of some specialist subject with a
view to solving problems or giving advice.

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2. Features of an Expert
System
High-level
expertise

Training CORPUS OF Predictive

facility KNOWLEDGE modeling

Institutional
memory

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1. Corpus of Knowledge: accumulates during system
building – explicit and accessible to simplify
decision making
2. High-level expertise: best thinking of top experts in
the field leading to solutions that are imaginative,
accurate and efficient – cost-effective and flexible.
3. Predictive modeling power: explain how new
situations lead to change in results. – User can
evaluate the effect of new strategies or procedures
on the solution by adding new rules or modifying
existing ones.

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4. Institutional memory: developed through
interaction with key personnel in an office or
department representing the current policy or
operating procedures – consensus of high-level
opinion and permanent record of best strategies
and methods
5. Training facility: for key personnel – contain the
knowledge and ability to explain the reasoning
processes – New staff can learn recommended
policies and methods.

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3. Who is involved in Expert
System Building?
Toolbuilder Domain
Expert Extends
and test

Builds Interviews

EXPERT
EXPERT SYSTEM Knowledge End-user
SYSTEM
BUILDING TOOL Engineer
Uses
Uses
Builds,
refines, and
tests Adds
data

Clerical
Staff

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1. Expert System: Called system as it contains
problem solving & support system components.
2. Domain/ Area Expert: articulate, knowledgeable
person in a particular field – solution made more
efficient by tricks and short cuts – can be a book or
journal.
3. Knowledge Engineer: person who knows how to
build expert systems- background in CS & AI –
interviews experts, organizes the knowledge,
decides its representation and may programmers
to write the code.

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4. Expert System Building Tool: Programming
language used by knowledge engineer or
programmer – convenient way to represent
complex and high-level concepts – Programming
language & support environment.
5. User: Person for whom the expert system was
developed – may be a tool builder, a knowledge
engineer, a domain expert, end-user or clerical
staff.

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 Expert system building tool includes:
1) the language used to represent and access the
knowledge contained in the systems and
2) the support environment – programs that help users
to interact with problem-solving component of expert
system.

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4. Comparing Human &
Artificial Expertise
The Good News

Human Expertise Artificial Expertise

Perishable Permanent

Difficult to transfer Easy to transfer

Difficult to document Easy to document

Unpredictable Consistent

Expensive Affordable

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 Human expertise – quickly fade – expert must
constantly practice and rehearse
Artificial expertise – once acquired it is permanent

Human Expertise – transferring knowledge is

laborious, lengthy and expensive- called education.
Artificial expertise – Trivial process of copying or
cloning a program or data file

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Human Expertise – documenting is extremely difficult
and time consuming
Artificial Expertise – easy – straightforward mapping
between representation and natural language
description

Human Expertise – different decisions in identical

situation due to emotion – forget an important rule
during crisis – time pressures & stress
Artificial expertise – more consistent and reproducible
results – not susceptible to time pressures and stress

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Human Expertise – very scarce and expensive
Artificial Expertise – inexpensive – costly to develop
but cheap to operate

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 The Bad News

Human Expertise Artificial Expertise

Creative Uninspired

Adaptive Needs to be told

Sensory experience Symbolic input

Broad focus Narrow focus

Commonsense knowledge Technical Knowledge

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Human Experts – more creative and innovative –
reorganize information to synthesize new knowledge
– unexpected events handled using imaginative and
novel approaches.
Expert Systems – uninspired and routine

Human Experts – learning – adapt to changing

conditions – strategies adjusted to new situations
Expert Systems – learning in extremely simple
domains but not in complex and real-world problems

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 Human Experts – learning – adapt to changing
conditions – strategies adjusted to new situations
Expert Systems – learning in extremely simple
domains but not in complex and real-world problems

Human Expert - Use of complex sensory input –

visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory
Expert Systems – Manipulation of symbols –
information lost in translation

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 Human Experts – Big picture – all aspects of the
problem and relate it to the central issue
Expert Systems: focus on the problem – ignoring
issues relevant but separate from the problem

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