DEFINITION

Artificial intelligence (AI), sometimes known as machine intelligence, refers to the ability of computers
to perform human-like feats of cognition including learning, problem-solving perception, decision-
making, and speech and language. Early AI systems had the ability to defeat a world chess champion,
map streets, and compose music. Thanks to more advanced algorithms, data volumes, and computer
power and storage, Al evolved and expanded to include more sophisticated applications, such as self-
driving cars, improved fraud detection, and "personal assistants" like Siri and Alexa. Today, medical
researchers are using Al to develop technology that will detect a range of diseases, improve radiology
imaging, fine-tune radiation treatments, simplify DNA sequencing, and advance precision medicine for
more individualized health care.

The Future of Machine Learning

Artificial intelligence as it is used today is considered "weak AI," because it is generally designed to
perform just one or two specific tasks as well as, and often better than, humans. At this point, however,
the controversial future of AI research includes ideas about developing "strong AI," or a super-
intelligence, with the potential to perform many or all cognitive tasks better than humans. Al safety
research is a priority for some scientists concerned about potential dangers if such advanced technology
gets into the wrong hands, although others still question the possibility of ever achieving human-level
strong Al..

Future of artificial intelligence

1. Automated Transportation

We're already seeing the beginnings of self-driving cars, though the vehicles are currently required to
have a driver present at the wheel for safety. Despite these exciting developmet the technology isn't
perfect yet, and it will take a while for public acceptance to bring automated cars into widespread use.
Google began testing a self-driving car in 2012, and since then, the U.S. Department of Transportation
has released definitions of different levels of automation, with Google's car classified as the first level
down from full automation. Other transportation methods are closer to full automation, such as buses
and trains.

2. Cyborg Technology

One of the main limitations of being human is simply our own bodies and brains. Researcher Shimon
Whiteson thinks that in the future, we will be able to augment ourselves with computers and enhance
many of our own natural abilities. Though many of these possible cyborg enhancements would be added
for convenience, others might serve a more practical purpose. Yoky Matsuka of Nest believes that Al will
become useful for people with amputated limbs, as the brain will be able to communicate with a robotic
limb to give the patient more control. This kind of cyborg technology would significantly reduce the
limitations that amputees deal with on a daily basis.

3. Taking over dangerous jobs

Robots are already taking over some of the most hazardous jobs available, including bomb defusing.
These robots aren't quite robots yet, according to the BBC. They are technically drones, being used as
the physical counterpart for defusing bombs, but requiring a human to control them, rather than using
Al. Whatever their classification, they have saved thousands of lives by taking over one of the most
dangerous jobs in the world. As technology improves, we will likely see more Al integration to help these
machines function.

Other jobs are also being reconsidered for robot integration. Welding, well known for producing toxic
substances, intense heat, and ear-splitting noise, can now be outsourced to robots in most cases. Robot
Worx explains that robotic welding cells are already in use, and have safety features in place to help
prevent human workers from fumes and other bodily harm.

4. Solving climate change

Solving climate change might seem like a tall order from a robot, but as Stuart Russell explains,
machines have more access to data than one person ever could storing a mind- boggling number of
statistics. Using big data, Al could one day identify trends and use that information to come up with
solutions to the world's biggest problems.
5. Robot as friends

Who wouldn't want a friend like C-3PO? At this stage, most robots are still emotionless and it's hard to
picture a robot you could relate to. However, a company in Japan has made the first big steps toward a
robot companion - one who can understand and feel emotions. Introduced in 2014, "Pepper" the
companion robot went on sale in 2015, with all 1,000 initial units selling out within a minute. The robot
was programmed to read human emotions, develop its own emotions, and help its human friends stay
happy. Pepper goes on sale in the U.S. in 2016, and more sophisticated friendly robots are sure to follow

6. Improved elder care

For many seniors, everyday life is a struggle, and many have to hire outside help to manage their care,
or rely on family members. Al is at a stage where replacing this need isn't too far off, says Matthew
Taylor, computer scientist at Washington State University. "Home" robots could help seniors with
everyday tasks and allow them to stay independent and in their homes for as long as possible, which
improves their overall well-being.

1.3. CHARACTERISTICS OF INTELLIGENT AGENTS:

An agent is anything that can be viewed as perceiving its environment through sensors and acting upon
that environment through effectors. A human agent has eyes, ears, and other organs for sensors, and
hands, legs, mouth, and other body parts for effectors. A robotic agent substitutes cameras and infrared
range finders for the sensors and various motors for the effectors. A software agent has encoded bit
strings as its percepts and actions.

CHARACTERISTICS AND APPLICATIONS OF INTELLIGENT AGENTS

Intelligent agents have four main characteristics

"An agent is a computer software system whose characteristics are situatedness, autonomy, adapîtvity
and sociability."

Situatedness
When an Agent receives some form of sensory input from its environment, it then performs some
actions that change its environment in some ways

Autonomy

This agent characteristic means that an agent is able to act without direct intervention from humans or
other agents. This type of agent has almost complete control over it own actions and internal state.

Adaptivity

This agent characteristic means that it is capable of reacting flexibly to changes within its environment. It
is able to accept goal directed initiatives when appropriate and is also capable of learning from its own
experiences, environment and interaction with others.

Sociability

Several traits or abilities exist which many people think of when they are discussing about intelligent
agent:

1. Capability to work on their own (autonomy)

Although not all intelligent agents have all of these capabilities, they are very useful in facilitating some
tasks such as:

1. Information Access and Navigation:

Information access is today's major application of intelligent agents, and it is done by use
of different search engines.

2. Decision Support and Empowerment:

Knowledge workers need support, especially in decision-making.

There is a pressing need to automate tasks performed by administrative and clerical personnel
in functional areas, such as sales or customer support, in order to reduce labour costs and increase
office productivity. Today, labour costs are estimated to be as much as 60 percent of the total cost of
information delivery.

4. Mundane Personal Activities:

In our fast-paced society, time-strapped individuals need new ways to minimise the time spent
on routine personal tasks like booking airline tickets. One specific form of intelligent agents is, the voice-
activated interface agent which reduces the burden on the user of having to explicitly command the
computer.

5. Search and Retrieval:

It is not possible to directly manipulate a distributed database system in a business setting which
involves millions of data objects. Users have to delegate the task of searching and cost comparison to
agents. These agents perform the tedious, time-consuming, and repetitive tasks of searching databases,
retrieving and filtering information, and delivering results to the user

6. Domain Experts:

It is advisable to model costly expertise and make it widely available. "Expert" software gents
could be models of real-world agents, such as translators, lawyers, diplomats, union megotiators, stock-
brokers, and even clergy.

7. Management Activities:

Intelligent agents can even be used to assist managers in performing their activities. Some
management-oriented tasks which an agent can do: advise, alert, broadcast, browse, critique, listribute,
enlist, empower, explain, filter, guide, identify, match, monitor, navigate, negotiate, organize, present,
query, report, remind, retrieve, schedule, search, secure, solicit, Store, suggest, summaries, reach,
translate and watch.

As an example, consider the case of an agent that is supposed to vacuum a dirty floor. A
plausible performance measure would be the amount of dirt cleaned up in a single eight-hour shift. A
more sophisticated performance measure would factor in the amount of electricity consumed and the
amount of noise generated as well. A third performance measure might give highest marks to an agent
that not only cleans the floor quietly and efficiently, but also finds time to go windsurfing at the
weekend.
Design Considerations

One of the most important aspects of intelligent agents is the design of the actual agent. The
agent needs to be able to fulfil the tasks that are required from it, i.e. to achieve its goals.

There are four main aspects that need to be taken into consideration when designing an
intelligent agent.

Percepts

This is the information that the agent receives

Actions

This is what the agent needs to do or can do to achieve its objectives.

Goals

This is the factor that the agent is trying to achieve

⚫Environment

The final aspect is the environment in which the agent will be working in. The environment in which the
agent performs is probably the most important aspect that needs to be considered as this affects the
outcome of the percepts, actions and goals.

AI TERMINOLOGIES
Percept

We use the term percept to refer to the agent's perceptual inputs at any given instant

Percept sequence

An agent's percept sequence is the complete history of everything the agent has ever perceived.

Agent function

Mathematically speaking, we say that an agent's behavior is described by the agent function
that maps any given percept sequence to an action.
 The agent function for an artificial agent will be the agent function for an artificial agent will be
implemented by an agent program.

 It is important to keep these two ideas distinct.

 The agent function is an abstract mathematical description; the agent program is a concrete
implementation, running on the agent architecture.

 To illustrate these ideas, we will use a very simple example-the vacuum-cleaner world shown in
Figure.

 This particular world has just two locations: squares A and B.

 The vacuum agent perceives which square it is in and whether there is dirt in

 It can choose to move left, move right, suck up the dirt, or do nothing.

 One very simple agent function is the following:

 if the current square is dirty, then suck, otherwise, it move to the other square. A partial
tabulation of this agent function is shown in Figure 1.2.