ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

What is Artificial Intelligence?

It is a branch of Computer Science that pursues creating the computers or machines as
intelligent as human beings.
It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent
computer programs.
It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but
AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable
Definition: Artificial Intelligence is the study of how to make computers do things, which,
at the moment, people do better.
According to the father of Artificial Intelligence, John McCarthy, it is “The science
and
Engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs”.
Artificial Intelligence is a way of making a computer, a computer-controlled robot,
or a software think intelligently, in the similar manner the intelligent humans think.
AI is accomplished by studying how human brain thinks and how humans learn,
decide, and work while trying to solve a problem, and then using the outcomes of this
study as a basis of developing intelligent software and systems.
It has gained prominence recently due, in part, to big data, or the increase in speed,
size and variety of data businesses are now collecting. AI can perform tasks such as
identifying patterns in the data more efficiently than humans, enabling businesses to
gain more insight out of their data.
From a business perspective AI is a set of very powerful tools, and methodologies for
using those tools to solve business problems.
From a programming perspective, AI includes the study of symbolic programming,
problem solving, and search.
AI Vocabulary
Intelligence relates to tasks involving higher mental processes, e.g. creativity, solving
problems, pattern recognition, classification, learning, induction, deduction, building
analogies, optimization, language processing, knowledge and many more. Intelligence is
the computational part of the ability to achieve goals.
Intelligent behaviour is depicted by perceiving one's environment, acting in complex
environments, learning and understanding from experience, reasoning to solve
problems and discover hidden knowledge, applying knowledge successfully in new
situations, thinking abstractly, using analogies, communicating with others and more.
Science based goals of AI pertain to developing concepts, mechanisms and understanding
biological intelligent behaviour. The emphasis is on understanding intelligent behaviour.

Engineering based goals of AI relate to developing concepts, theory and practice of building
intelligent machines. The emphasis is on system building.

AI Techniques depict how we represent, manipulate and reason with knowledge in order to
solve problems. Knowledge is a collection of ‘facts'. To manipulate these facts by a program, a
suitable representation is required. A good representation facilitates problem solving.

Learning means that programs learn from what facts or behaviour can represent. Learning
denotes changes in the systems that are adaptive in other words, it enables the system to do the
same task(s) more efficiently next time.

Applications of AI refers to problem solving, search and control strategies, speech recognition,
natural language understanding, computer vision, expert systems, etc.

Problems of AI:
Intelligence does not imply perfect understanding; every intelligent being has limited perception,
memory and computation. Many points on the spectrum of intelligence versus cost are viable,
from insects to humans. AI seeks to understand the computations required from intelligent
behaviour and to produce computer systems that exhibit intelligence. Aspects of intelligence
studied by AI include perception, communicational using human languages, reasoning, planning,
learning and memory.

The following questions are to be considered before we can step forward:

1. What are the underlying assumptions about intelligence?
2. What kinds of techniques will be useful for solving AI problems?
3. At what level human intelligence can be modelled?
4. When will it be realized when an intelligent program has been built?

Branches of AI:

A list of branches of AI is given below. However some branches are surely missing, because no
one has identified them yet. Some of these may be regarded as concepts or topics rather than full
branches.

Logical AI - In general the facts of the specific situation in which it must act, and its goals are
all represented by sentences of some mathematical logical language. The program decides what
to do by inferring that certain actions are appropriate for achieving its goals.

Search - Artificial Intelligence programs often examine large numbers of possibilities – for
example, moves in a chess game and inferences by a theorem proving program. Discoveries are
frequently made about how to do this more efficiently in various domains.
Pattern Recognition - When a program makes observations of some kind, it is often planned
to compare what it sees with a pattern. For example, a vision program may try to match a pattern
of eyes and a nose in a scene in order to find a face. More complex patterns are like a natural
language text, a chess position or in the history of some event. These more complex patterns
require quite different methods than do the simple patterns that have been studied the most.

Representation - Usually languages of mathematical logic are used to represent the facts about
the world.

Inference - Others can be inferred from some facts. Mathematical logical deduction is
sufficient for some purposes, but new methods of non-monotonic inference have been added to
the logic since the 1970s. The simplest kind of non-monotonic reasoning is default reasoning in
which a conclusion is to be inferred by default. But the conclusion can be withdrawn if there is
evidence to the divergent. For example, when we hear of a bird, we infer that it can fly, but this
conclusion can be reversed when we hear that it is a penguin. It is the possibility that a
conclusion may have to be withdrawn that constitutes the non-monotonic character of the
reasoning. Normal logical reasoning is monotonic, in that the set of conclusions can be drawn
from a set of premises, i.e. monotonic increasing function of the premises. Circumscription is
another form of non-monotonic reasoning.

Common sense knowledge and Reasoning - This is the area in which AI is farthest from the
human level, in spite of the fact that it has been an active research area since the 1950s. While
there has been considerable progress in developing systems of non-monotonic reasoning and
theories of action, yet more new ideas are needed.

Learning from experience - There are some rules expressed in logic for learning. Programs
can only learn what facts or behaviour their formalisms can represent, and unfortunately learning
systems are almost all based on very limited abilities to represent information.

Planning - Planning starts with general facts about the world (especially facts about the effects
of actions), facts about the particular situation and a statement of a goal. From these, planning
programs generate a strategy for achieving the goal. In the most common cases, the strategy is
just a sequence of actions.

Epistemology - This is a study of the kinds of knowledge that are required for solving
problems in the world.

Ontology - Ontology is the study of the kinds of things that exist. In AI the programs and
sentences deal with various kinds of objects and we study what these kinds are and what their
basic properties are. Ontology assumed importance from the 1990s.

Heuristics - A heuristic is a way of trying to discover something or an idea embedded in a

program. The term is used variously in AI. Heuristic functions are used in some approaches to
search or to measure how far a node in a search tree seems to be from a goal. Heuristic
predicates that compare two nodes in a search tree to see if one is better than the other, i.e.
constitutes an advance toward the goal, and may be more useful.
Genetic programming - Genetic programming is an automated method for creating a working
computer program from a high-level problem statement of a problem. Genetic programming
starts from a high-level statement of ‘what needs to be done' and automatically creates a
computer program to solve the problem.

Applications of AI

AI has applications in all fields of human study, such as finance and economics, environmental
engineering, chemistry, computer science, and so on. Some of the applications of AI are listed
below:
· Perception
֠ Machine vision
֠ Speech understanding
֠ Touch ( tactile or haptic) sensation
· Robotics
· Natural Language Processing
֠ Natural Language Understanding
֠ Speech Understanding
֠ Language Generation
֠ Machine Translation
· Planning
· Expert Systems
· Machine Learning
· Theorem Proving
· Symbolic Mathematics
· Game Playing

AI Technique:
Artificial Intelligence research during the last three decades has concluded that Intelligence
requires knowledge. To compensate overwhelming quality, knowledge possesses less desirable
properties.
A. It is huge.
B. It is difficult to characterize correctly.
C. It is constantly varying.
D. It differs from data by being organized in a way that corresponds to its application.
E. It is complicated.

An AI technique is a method that exploits knowledge that is represented so that:

· The knowledge captures generalizations that share properties, are grouped together,
rather than being allowed separate representation.

· It can be understood by people who must provide it-even though for many
programs bulk of the data comes automatically from readings.

· In many AI domains, how the people understand the same people must supply the
knowledge to a program.
 · It can be easily modified to correct errors and reflect changes in real conditions.

· It can be widely used even if it is incomplete or inaccurate.

· It can be used to help overcome its own sheer bulk by helping to narrow the range
of possibilities that must be usually considered.

In order to characterize an AI technique let us consider initially OXO or tic-tac-toe and use a
series of different approaches to play the game.
The programs increase in complexity, their use of generalizations, the clarity of their
knowledge and the extensibility of their approach. In this way they move towards being
representations of AI techniques.

Example-1: Tic-Tac-Toe

1.1 The first approach (simple)

The Tic-Tac-Toe game consists of a nine element vector called BOARD; it represents the
numbers 1 to 9 in three rows.

An element contains the value 0 for blank, 1 for X and 2 for O. A MOVETABLE vector consists
of 19,683 elements (39) and is needed where each element is a nine element vector. The contents
of the vector are especially chosen to help the algorithm.
The algorithm makes moves by pursuing the following:
1. View the vector as a ternary number. Convert it to a decimal number.
2. Use the decimal number as an index in MOVETABLE and access the vector.
3. Set BOARD to this vector indicating how the board looks after the move. This
approach is capable in time but it has several disadvantages. It takes more space and
requires stunning
effort to calculate the decimal numbers. This method is specific to this game and cannot
be completed.

1.2 The second approach

The structure of the data is as before but we use 2 for a blank, 3 for an X and 5 for an O.
A variable called TURN indicates 1 for the first move and 9 for the last. The algorithm consists
of three actions:
MAKE2 which returns 5 if the centre square is blank; otherwise it returns any blank non-
corner square, i.e. 2, 4, 6 or 8. POSSWIN (p) returns 0 if player p cannot win on the next move
and otherwise returns the number of the square that gives a winning move.
It checks each line using products 3*3*2 = 18 gives a win for X, 5*5*2=50 gives a win
for O, and the winning move is the holder of the blank. GO (n) makes a move to square n setting
BOARD[n] to 3 or 5.
 This algorithm is more involved and takes longer but it is more efficient in storage which
Compensates for its longer time. It depends on the programmer's skill.

1.3 The final approach

The structure of the data consists of BOARD which contains a nine element vector, a list
of board positions that could result from the next move and a number representing an estimation
of how the board position leads to an ultimate win for the player to move.
This algorithm looks ahead to make a decision on the next move by deciding which the
most promising move or the most suitable move at any stage would be and selects the same.
Consider all possible moves and replies that the program can make. Continue this process
for as long as time permits until a winner emerges, and then choose the move that leads to the
computer program winning, if possible in the shortest time.
Actually this is most difficult to program by a good limit but it is as far that the technique
can be extended to in any game. This method makes relatively fewer loads on the programmer
in terms of the game technique but the overall game strategy must be known to the adviser.

Example-2: Question Answering

Let us consider Question Answering systems that accept input in English and provide
answers also in English. This problem is harder than the previous one as it is more difficult to
specify the problem properly. Another area of difficulty concerns deciding whether the answer
obtained is correct, or not, and further what is meant by ‘correct'. For example, consider the
following situation:

2.1 Text
Rani went shopping for a new Coat. She found a red one she really liked.
When she got home, she found that it went perfectly with her favourite dress.

2.2 Question
1. What did Rani go shopping for?
2. What did Rani find that she liked?
3. Did Rani buy anything?

Method 1

2.3 Data Structures

A set of templates that match common questions and produce patterns used to match
against inputs. Templates and patterns are used so that a template that matches a given question
is associated with the corresponding pattern to find the answer in the input text. For example, the
template who did x y generates x y z if a match occurs and z is the answer to the question. The
given text and the question are both stored as strings.

2.4 Algorithm

Answering a question requires the following four steps to be followed:

 · Compare the template against the questions and store all successful matches to produce a
set of text patterns.

· Pass these text patterns through a substitution process to change the person or voice and
produce an expanded set of text patterns.

· Apply each of these patterns to the text; collect all the answers and then print the answers.

2.5 Example

In question 1 we use the template WHAT DID X Y which generates Rani go shopping for z and
after substitution we get Rani goes shopping for z and Rani went shopping for z giving z
[equivalence] a new coat

In question 2 we need a very large number of templates and also a scheme to allow the insertion
of ‘find' before ‘that she liked'; the insertion of ‘really' in the text; and the substitution of ‘she'
for ‘Rani' gives the answer ‘a red one'.

Question 3 cannot be answered.

2.6 Comments

This is a very primitive approach basically not matching the criteria we set for
intelligence and worse than that, used in the game. Surprisingly this type of technique was
actually used in ELIZA which will be considered later in the course.

Method 2
2.7 Data Structures

A structure called English consists of a dictionary, grammar and some semantics about
the vocabulary we are likely to come across. This data structure provides the knowledge to
convert English text into a storable internal form and also to convert the response back into
English. The structured representation of the text is a processed form and defines the context of
the input text by making explicit all references such as pronouns. There are three types of such
knowledge representation systems: production rules of the form ‘if x then y', slot and filler
systems and statements in mathematical logic. The system used here will be the slot and filler
system.

Take, for example sentence:

‘She found a red one she really liked'.

Event2 Event2
instance: finding instance: likin
tense: past tense: g
past
agent: Rani modifier: muc
object: Thing1 object: h
Thin
g1
 Thing1
instance: coat
colour: red

The question is stored in two forms: as input and in the above form.

2.8 Algorithm

· Convert the question to a structured form using English know how, then use a marker to
indicate the substring (like ‘who' or ‘what') of the structure, that should be returned as an
answer. If a slot and filler system is used a special marker can be placed in more than one
slot.
· The answer appears by matching this structured form against the structured text.
· The structured form is matched against the text and the requested segments of the
question are returned.

2.9 Examples

Both questions 1 and 2 generate answers via a new coat and a red coat respectively.
Question 3 cannot be answered, because there is no direct response.

2.10 Comments

This approach is more meaningful than the previous one and so is more effective. The
extra power given must be paid for by additional search time in the knowledge bases. A warning
Must be given here: that is – to generate unambiguous English knowledge base is a complex task
and must be left until later in the course. The problems of handling pronouns are difficult.

For example:
Rani walked up to the salesperson: she asked where the toy department was.
Rani walked up to the salesperson: she asked her if she needed any help.

Whereas in the original text the linkage of ‘she' to ‘Rani' is easy, linkage of ‘she' in each of the
above sentences to Rani and to the salesperson requires additional knowledge about the context
via the people in a shop.
Method 3

2.11 Data Structures

World model contains knowledge about objects, actions and situations that are described
in the input text. This structure is used to create integrated text from input text. The diagram
shows how the system's knowledge of shopping might be represented and stored. This
information is known as a script and in this case is a shopping script. (See figure 1.1 next page )
1.8.2.12 Algorithm

Convert the question to a structured form using both the knowledge contained in Method
2 and the World model, generating even more possible structures, since even more knowledge is
being used. Sometimes filters are introduced to prune the possible answers.
To answer a question, the scheme followed is: Convert the question to a structured form
as before but use the world model to resolve any ambiguities that may occur. The structured
form is matched against the text and the requested segments of the question are returned.

2.13 Example

Both questions 1 and 2 generate answers, as in the previous program. Question 3 can now
be answered. The shopping script is instantiated and from the last sentence the path through step
14 is the one used to form the representation. ‘M' is bound to the red coat-got home. ‘Rani buys
a red coat' comes from step 10 and the integrated text generates that she bought a red coat.

2.14 Comments

This program is more powerful than both the previous programs because it has more
knowledge. Thus, like the last game program it is exploiting AI techniques. However, we are not
yet in a position to handle any English question. The major omission is that of a general
reasoning mechanism known as inference to be used when the required answer is not explicitly
given in the input text. But this approach can handle, with some modifications, questions of the
following form with the answer-Saturday morning Rani went shopping. Her brother tried to
call her but she did not answer.

Question: Why couldn't Rani's brother reach her?

Answer: Because she was not in.

This answer is derived because we have supplied an additional fact that a person cannot
be in two places at once. This patch is not sufficiently general so as to work in all cases and does
not provide the type of solution we are really looking for.