THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FIELD

10.4 THE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FIELD

Artificial intelligence is a collection of concepts and ideas related to the development of an intelligent systems. These concepts and ideas may be developed in different areas

and be applied to different domains. In order to understand the scope of A l , therefore, we need to see a group of areas that may be called the Al family. Figure 10.2 shows the major branches of Al studies. They are briefly described below.

EXPERT SYSTEMS The name expert system was derived from the term knowledge-based expert system.

An expert system (ES) is a system that uses human knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems that ordinarily require human expertise. Later sections of this chap- ter have detailed explanations.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING Natural language processing ( N L P ) technology gives computer users the ability to

communicate with a computer in their native language. This technology allows for a conversational type of interface, in contrast to using a programming language consist- ing of computer jargon, syntax, and commands. It includes two subfields: Natural lan- guage understanding investigates m e t h o d s of enabling computers to c o m p r e h e n d instructions given in ordinary English so that they can understand people more easily. Natural language generation strives to have computers produce ordinary English lan- guage so that people can understand them more easily. The limited success in this area is typified by current systems that can recognize and interpret written sentences. Details on these topics are discussed in Appendix 10-B and in Reiter and Dal e (2000) and M c R o y et al. (2001).

SPEECH (VOICE) UNDERSTANDING Speech understanding is the recognition and understanding of spoken language by a

computer. M o r e information about spoken-language processing can be found in Balentine et al. (1999) and Huang et al. (2001). Applications of the technology have become more and more popular. For instance, many companies have adopted the tech- nology in their call centers. See A I S in Action 10.3 for a description.

ROBOTICS AND SENSORY SYSTEMS Sensory systems, such as vision systems, tactile systems, and signal-processing systems,

when combined with A l , define a broad category of systems generally called robotics.

C H A P T E R 1 0 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE A N D EXPERT SYSTEMS: K N O W L E D G E - B A S E D SYSTEMS

Psychology Philosophy Electrical Management and engineering management science

® Psycholinguistics (D Cognitive psychology © Robotics (M) Mathematics/statistics © Sociolinguistics © Philosophy © Image processing ® Operations research © Computational © Philosophy of ® Pattern recognition © Management information

linguistics language © Management systems © Adaptive systems © Logic © Biology

F I G U R E 1 0 . 2 T H E DISCIPLINES O F A L (THE ROOTS) A N D THE APPLICATIONS

tasks. The Robotics Institute of America formally defines a robot as "a reprogramma- ble multifunctional manipulator designed to m o v e materials, parts, tools, or specialized devices through variable programmed motions for the performance of a variety of tasks."

An "intelligent" robot has a sensory apparatus of s o m e kind, such as a camera, that

P A R T I V INTELLIGENT DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS

A I S I N A C T I O N 1 0 .3 AUTOMATIC SPEECH RECOGNITION