What's New with Artificial Intelligence?
The Personal Robot is sleek metallic blue and silver,
and sunlight glints off his bare back as he washes his
master's car in the noonday heat.
Is there a Personal Robot lurking in your future?
Very likely, and when you finally buy him (or her),
it will be Artificial Intelligence running on your Robot's
onboard 786 computer that will get your car washed and waxed.
At your command, he will also clean your house, mow
your lawn, or wash and iron your shirts!
While you are out for the day!
Artificial Intelligence is computer software that allows
a computer (or Robot) to perform tasks we would consider intelligent
if done by a person. These tasks include giving expert advice,
understanding natural language, speaking intelligently and
recognizing complex patterns such as handwriting. The three
most important types of AI Programs today are Expert Systems,
Natural Language Programs and Neural Networks.
This exciting software is moving in several new directions
in the 1990's:
- Embedded Artificial Intelligence - A.I. within
otherwise conventional database software.
- Robotics - insect like electronic creatures with simple
intelligence are being created at the MIT Robotics Lab.
- Intelligent Vision - Robot Eyes that can identify various
components on an assembly line, for example.
- CASE - Computer Aided Software Engineering - using software
to write new software.
- CAI - Computer Aided Instruction, tutorial software that
automatically adjusts to your level of knowledge.
There is substantial interest in moving A.I. out of the
factory and lab, and into the Office and home. Work Group Software
and complex Electronic Mail and Filing Systems are already starting
to reflect this trend and become more intelligent.
A.I. Visionaries are talking about "Agents", very
intelligent PC Based programs that can accept and carry out a long
series of complex instructions, and report back to you when all
tasks are completed.
Some software designers are even experimenting with primitive but
fascinating forms of Artificial Life (software that mimics growth and
reproduction), and a new field called Virtual Reality.
Virtual Reality Software, along with special goggles and gloves,
allows you to seemingly enter an artificial world that exists only
within the computer, and even move and touch objects that appear in
the 3-D view provided by the goggles.
The new generation of super high-speed 486 PC's now becoming
available from IBM, Compaq, and other compatible builders have become
the platform of choice for the development of A.I. Software. Could
the 586 PC running at 100 Megahertz be already in the wings?
EXPERT SYSTEMS
An Expert System is computer software that can solve real
world problems requiring logic, decision making and knowledge
processing. Expert Systems can also categorize, consult, analyze,
and diagnose. These software tools are useful in areas that
formerly required a human expert. Expert Systems use deductive
reasoning to solve problems that are often unstructured, and
would be impossible to approach with conventional procedural
computer techniques.
You might think that when consulting an Expert System, you ask
the Expert System a question, and receive a solution. Actually,
its the other way round. The vast majority of Expert Systems in use
today ask YOU the questions, and arrive at a solution based on your
responses - and the IF/THEN rules in their knowledgebase.
Here's a extremely simplified example:
EXPERT QUESTION 1: Do you have a bad cough?
YOUR ANSWER: Yes.
EXPERT QUESTION 2: Do you smoke?
YOUR ANSWER: No.
EXPERT SOLUTION: You have a cold.
If you had answered Yes to the second question, the
Expert Solution would be: You have smoker's cough.
Naturally, an Expert System that you could question
would be preferable, but this has been very difficult
to program with current technology, because of the extreme
difficulty of programming a computer to extract MEANING
from a sentence or question. However, there is little doubt
that this will eventually be accomplished, most likely through
Knowledge Frames.
One large Knowledge Frame project manager likens
building Knowledge Frames on a computer to teaching the
Encyclopedia to a small child. He has also called the
process "teaching by brain surgery", as every single
fact, relationship and idea must be manually typed into
the computer in just the right way. It is hoped that building
millions of linked Knowledge Frames will result in a computer
with enough "common sense" to understand and respond to questions.
THE DOMAIN OF THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
An Expert System Shell is an Expert System minus its
knowledgebase and domain. It is an Expert System ready to be
taught the rules of knowledge in a particular field. An
"Expert System Ready to Consult" is an Expert System that has
been given knowledge rules for a specific domain or subject,
such as Medical Diagnosis, Car Repair or virtually any organized
body of knowledge.
Some of the most famous Expert Systems can be found
in the area of Medical Diagnoses and Computer Configuaration,
and surpass human experts in their specific areas of expertise.
In one specific area of expertise - playing chess - a domain
specific computer called Deep Thought has won against GrandMaster
human players, and most experts believe that Deep Thought will
eventually become the world chess champion, perhaps within five
years.
NATURAL LANGUAGE
Natural Language Software is the branch of AI that focuses on
getting computers to understand spoken or typed english. English has proven
itself as the most useful tool for people communicating with people.
It is now starting to emerge as a viable alternative for people
communicating with computers. Someday, desktop PC's will routinely respond
to our spoken requests with answers in perfectly spoken English - or any
other language!
There is now software that can speak any file or text screen on your PC,
(Monlogue, from First Byte), and software that can type your slowly spoken
words (Dragon Dictate, $9000.00). There is also software to automatically
translate from one language to another. One A.I. goal is to provide
automatic real-time language translation as you speak during a
Trans-Atlantic phone conversation. The SoundBytes Toolkit
(Thinking Software, $59.95) allows programrs to add Speech to any
PC Program. The PC Therapist III (Thinking Software, $59.95) is an
advanced update of Eliza, the famous talking psychiatrist first developed
at M.I.T.
There is absolutely no doubt that Encylopedia sales will soon
be replaced by Enclopedias on CD-ROM Disks, with powerful Natual
Language software "front-ends" that can accept a school child's
typed question, and turn it into a correct search-and-retrieval
procedure to answer any question from the Encyclopedia.
Can you imagine a child telling his computer to "Prepare
a report on the History of Artifical Intelligence", or - more likely -
on the Presidents of the United States?
NEURAL NETWORKS
A Neural Network is a biological model of a human brain, simulated in
the binary memory of your PC. It is made up of artificial Neurons,
connected to each other by Axions. Each Neuron can have many inputs,
but only one output. As a Neuron gets energized by input, it fires, sending
energy along axions to other nearbye Neurons. If another Neuron receives
enough energy it will also fire, propagating the excitation to others.
There are hundreds or even thousands of such Neurons, arranged in layers,
and all together they form a Neural Network, capable of learning from
experience though a self correcting technique called back-propogation.
Today, Neural Networks are the most exciting area in Artificial
Intelligence, and these real operational computer models of the brain
routinely perform outstanding feats of pattern recognition such as reading
scribbled handwriting at high speed with incredible accuracy, learning to
identify male versus female faces, and even learning to speak almost
without human assistance.
There is also a lot of excitement on Wall Street where high
level programrs have created Neural Networks that can predict the
Stock Market quickly enough to place buy and sell orders based on the
Networks output. A number of small companies have been formed around
the idea of using Neural Networks to predict the result of horse races
and other sporting events based on past history.
Some claim that Neural Network Software will lead us to a new
"Age of Artificial Intelligence". When the first Personal Robot
goes on the market (for the price of...let's say...about the
price of a Cadillac or Mercedes...at first...) will its brain
be an Expert System, a Neural Network, or Natural Language
Software, or perhaps some exotic high-tech combination of the
three still to be invented?
The Personal Robot has finished washing and waxing the
car, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, changing the sheets,
and dinner is in the microwave. He stands silent and waiting
for further commands from you, his master. He is not tired or
resentful from performing the endless tasks. He has been
programd to seem cheerful at all times. So when you finally
buy your Personal Robot, don't go treating him like a slave.
Treat him....or her...like a buddy.
