Artificial Intelligence

Uses

Artificial Intelligence
Uses

Some computer programs that are used to perform AI tasks are designed to manipulate symbolic information at extremely high speeds, in order to compensate for their partial lack of human knowledge and selectivity. Such programs are usually called "expert systems."

Other programs are designed to simulate human capabilities for problem solving through the use of highly selective search and recognition methods, rather than through superhuman processing speeds.

Both expert systems and programs simulating human methods have attained the performance levels of human experts and professionals in performing certain specific tasks, but by the mid-1990s there were still no programs that could match human flexibility over wider domains or in tasks requiring much everyday knowledge.

Knowledge-based expert systems enable computers to make decisions for solving complicated nonnumerical problems. These expert systems consist of hundreds or thousands of "if-then" logic rules formulated with knowledge gleaned from leading authorities in a given field. Programs have also been developed that enable computers to comprehend commands in a natural language--e.g., ordinary English. The software systems of this type that have been produced so far are limited in their vocabulary and knowledge to specific, narrowly defined subject areas. They contain large amounts of information about the meaning of words pertaining to that subject, as well as information about grammatical rules and common violations of those rules.

The ability to identify graphic patterns or images is associated with artificial intelligence, since it involves both cognition and abstraction. In a system designed with this capability, a device linked to a computer scans, senses, and transforms images into digital patterns, which in turn are compared with patterns stored in the computer's memory. The stored patterns can represent geometric shapes and forms that the computer has been programmed to (or has learned to) identify. The computer processes the incoming patterns in rapid succession, isolating relevant features, filtering out unwanted signals, and adding to its memory any new patterns that deviate beyond a specified threshold from the old and are thus perceived as new entities.