For some reason, I blame it on ET, the term artificial intelligence is oftentimes associated with aliens. Although we may not be dealing with aliens in Chapter 13, it actually is not that far of a stretch to associate artificial intelligence with that of a very human-like being such as ET. This is because of the very definition of artificial intelligence: related technologies that try to simulate and reproduce human thought behavior, including thinking, speaking, feeling, and reasoning. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies apply computers to areas that require knowledge, perception, reasoning, understanding, and cognitive abilities.
To achieve these capabilities, computers must be programmed to:
1)Understand common sense
2)Understand facts and manipulate qualitative data
3)Deal with exceptions and discontinuity
4)Understand relationships between facts
5)Interact with humans in their own language
6)Be able to deal with new situations based on previous learning.
Unlike information systems, AI technology is concerned with generating and displaying knowledge and facts rather than storing, retrieving, and working with data.
The scope of artificially intelligent technologies can come as a surprise to someone such as myself who has not had much exposure to such technologies. Some applications of the technology include:
-Transportation Industry: American Airlines has an expert systems used to schedule the routine maintenance of its airplanes
-Government: The Internal Revenue Service is testing a new software to read tax returns and spot fraud
-Telecommunications: BT Group has a heuristic search used for scheduling application that provides the work schedules for more than 20,000 engineers
-And much more
Robotics
Robots and robotics are some of the most successful applications of artificial intelligence. Robots first started out in factories and performed well at simple, repetitive tasks that freed workers from tedious of hazardous jobs. However, now robots are being more commonly used in the military and aerospace and medical industries as well as for performing services such as delivering mail to employees.
The attraction of robots is the fact that they have some unique advantages in the workplace compared with humans:
1)They don’t fall in love with coworkers, get insulted, or call in sick
2)They’re consistent
3)They can be used in environments that are hazardous
4)They don’t spy for competitors, ask for a raise, or lobby for longer breaks
Personal robots have attracted a lot of attention lately as they are useful at performing helpful tasks such as helping the elderly, bringing breakfast to the table, cooking, opening doors and carrying trays and drinks.
Expert Systems
Expert systems have been one of the most successful AI-related technologies and have been around since the 1960’s. These expert systems mimic human expertise in a field to solve a problem. In order for them to be successful, they must be applied to an activity that human experts have already handled such as tasks in medicine, geology, education, and oil exploration. An example of an expert system found in the book is PortBlue. PortBlue is an expert system that can be applied to various financial applications including examination of complex financial structures, foreign exchange risk management, and more.
Despite all the hype about expert systems and artificial intelligence, certain criteria must still be met before using AI. Although the systems may be good at what they do, sometimes there is no replacement to humans for subjective reasoning such as that using the five senses such as taste or smell. A robot cannot tell you how good a burger tastes or if a new perfume smells better than the old.
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