Computing and IT in the Workplace

CT006-1

Artificial Intelligence (Part 1)

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this section, YOU should be able to:

Describe some of the types of Artificial Intelligence

computing
Expert systems
Natural Language Processing

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Topics we will cover

Artificial Intelligence
Expert Systems
Natural Language Processing

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Areas of AI
Knowledge
C
O

AI

N
C

Knowledge
representation
Problem
solving

E
P
T

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Searching
Reasoning
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Six areas
of AI

Definition of Expert System

An Expert System is a system that employs human

knowledge captured in a computer to solve problems
that ordinarily require human expertise
ES imitate the experts reasoning processes to solve
specific problems

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Why use Expert System

To preserve knowledge

Helps if expertise is scarce, expensive

and unavailable

Helps if under time and pressure

constraints

To train new employees

To improve worker productivity

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Key Insight of Expert System

The power of an ES is derived from the specific

knowledge it possesses, not from the particular
formalisms and inference schemes it employs.

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Basic concept of Expert System

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Expertise
Experts
Transferring Expertise
Rules and Inferencing
Explanation Capability

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Expertise

Possession of great knowledge

Natural or acquired facility in a specific activity/area

Theories about the problem area

Hard-and-fast rules and procedures

Global strategies

Meta-knowledge (knowledge about knowledge)

Facts

Enables experts to be better and faster than non-experts

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Expert

An expert :

Has vast quantity of knowledge (special knowledge)

The knowledge is well-stored, organized and

retrievable quickly

Has an excellent recall

Learn from past successes and mistakes

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Transferring Expertise

Domain Expert

System

User (non-experts)

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Inferencing and Explanation

The computer is programmed so that it can make

inferences
Performed by the Inference Engine

Explanation
Explains the systems behaviour by interactively
answering questions like
why?

what?

how? when?
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etc.
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Types of Expert System

knowledge-based system

rule-based system

frame-based system

hybrid system

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Conventional System vs Expert System

Conventional Systems

Expert Systems

Information and its processing

Knowledge base is clearly separated

from the processing (inference)
mechanism
Program may make mistakes

are usually combined in one

sequential program
Program does not make mistakes
(programmers do)
No explanation on why input data are
needed or how conclusions are drawn

Explanation is a part of most ES

Require all input data. May not

function properly with missing data
unless planned for
Changes in the program are tedious

Do not require all initial facts.

Typically can arrive at reasonable
conclusions with missing facts
Changes in the rules are easy to
accomplish (!)

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Conventional System vs Expert System

(cont)
The system operates only when it is
completed

The system can operate with only a few

rules (as the first prototype)

Execution is done on a step-by-step

(algorithmic) basis
Effective manipulation of large
databases
Representation and use of data

Execution is done by using heuristics

and logic
Effective manipulation of large
knowledge bases
Representation and use of knowledge

Use numerical data representations

Use symbolic knowledge

representations

Efficiency is a major goal

Effectiveness is the major goal

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Three Major ES Components

User

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User
interfac
e

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Inferenc
e
Engine
Knowledg
e Base

Basic ES Structure
Working
Memory

User Interface

Inference
Engine

Knowledge
Base

Explanation
Facility

Knowledge
Acquisition
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Knowledge Acquisition

Gathering knowledge from experts

- can be more than one expert

Requires a knowledge engineer

Knowledge engineer will interpret and

integrate the knowledge from the experts and
translate them into forms that can be
understood by the computer

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Knowledge Acquisition
Tasks involved:

interviews

observation

protocol analysis

brainstorming

case analysis and etc.

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Knowledge Base

The knowledge base contains the knowledge

necessary for understanding, formulating, and solving
problems

Two Basic Knowledge Base Elements

Facts
Rules or procedures

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Inference Engine
The brain of the ES
The control structure or the rule interpreter
Provides a methodology for reasoning

User interface

Language processor for friendly, problemoriented communication

NLP, or menus and graphics

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Working Memory

Area of working memory to

Describe the current problem
Record Intermediate results

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Expert Systems Development Phases

Requirements

Assessment
Knowledge Acquisition

Knowledge

Design

Structure

Test

Evaluation
Documentation
Maintain
Maintenance
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Types of Users
Possible Types of Users:
1. A non-expert client seeking direct advice the ES
acts as a Consultant or Advisor
2. An ES builder improving or increasing the
knowledge base - a Partner
3. A student who wants to learn - an Instructor
4. An expert - a Colleague or Assistant

The expert and the knowledge engineer should

anticipate users' needs and limitations when
designing ES
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Desirable features of Expert System

Dealing with uncertainty

Explanation

Ease of modification

Transportability

Adaptive learning

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Benefits of Expert Systems

Major Potential ES Benefits

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Increased Output and Productivity

Increased Process(es) and Product Quality
Decreased Decision Making Time
Capture of Scarce Expertise
Accessibility to Knowledge and Help Desks
Increased Capabilities of Other Computerized
Systems
7. Integration of Several Experts' Opinions

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Benefits of Expert Systems (cont)

8. Ability to Work with Incomplete or Uncertain Information

Improved Decision Quality
Knowledge Transfer to Remote Locations

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Problems and Limitations of Expert System

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Knowledge is not always readily available

Hard to extract expertise from humans
Each experts approach may be different, yet correct
Hard, even for a highly skilled expert, to work under
time pressure.
Users of expert systems have natural cognitive
limits.
ES work well only in a narrow domain of knowledge.

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Problems and Limitations of Expert System

7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.

Most experts have no independent means to

validate their conclusions
The vocabulary of experts is often limited and highly
technical
Knowledge engineers are rare and expensive
Lack of trust by end-users
Knowledge transfer is subject to a host of
perceptual and judgmental biases
ES may not be able to arrive at conclusions
ES sometimes produce incorrect recommendations

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Facts of ES

Only about one-third of Expert Systems

survive more than five years

Why?

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Why?

Due to Managerial Issues

Problems in transitioning from development to
maintenance
Inability to retain developers
Shifts in organizational priorities

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Expert System Success Factor

Two of the Most Critical Factors

Champion in Management

User Involvement and Training

Plus
-

There must be (at least) one cooperative expert

The problem to be solved must be qualitative (fuzzy)
not quantitative
The ES shell must be high quality, and naturally store
and manipulate the knowledge
The problem must be sufficiently narrow in scope

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Expert System Success Factor (cont)

-

Need knowledgeable and high quality system

developers with good people skills
- The impact of ES as a source of end-users job
improvement must be favorable. End user attitudes
and expectations must be considered
- Management support must be cultivated.
- Need end-user training programs
- The organizational environment should favor the
new technology adoption

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What is Natural Language

A subfield of Artificial Intelligence and a bit of

Linguistics.

Studies the problems inherent in the processing

and manipulation of natural language

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What is NLP?

Divided into two areas:

- natural language understanding
to take sentences and understand them
- natural language generation
to produce sentences

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Four stages of language understanding

Speech recognition - understand the spoken words

Syntactic analysis - use of grammar and the

structure of the sentence

Semantic analysis - use of structure and the

meaning of the words

Pragmatic analysis - use of the context of the

sentence

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Speech Recognition

Words/
templates
Analog
signal

Digital
signal

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Input

Syntactic Analysis
helps us to understand how words are grouped
together to make sentences
use the structure of the sentence via the rules of syntax
Example:
Cows eat grass
N

Wrong syntax:
Eat cows grass

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Parse Trees
To ensure that the structure is correct
Sentence
verb_phrase

Noun_phrase
Proper_noun

Verb

Noun_phrase
Noun

"Cows"
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" eat"

"grass"
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Parser Trees

A parser will be needed to parse the tree

A parser will check the whole tree to check the
possibilities that may arise
It works like a search algorithm

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Exercise
Create a parse tree for the following sentences:
1.

Mary eats the lion

2.

Mary eats the ferocious lion.

Use the parse tree you have created above to check

the following sentences:
1.

Carrots eat the carrot.

2.

Rabbits eat every carrot.

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Semantic Analysis

To get the meaning of a sentence.

Example:
Cows eat grass

syntactically correct,
semantically correct

Grass eats cows

syntactically correct,
semantically incorrect

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Semantic Analysis (cont)

Use parse tree to analyze
Example: Cows eat grass
Sentence - eat(cows,grass)
verb_phrase - x eat(x,grass)

Noun_phrase - Cows

Verb - y x eat(x,y)

Noun_phrase

Noun - grass
Proper_noun
"Cows"
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"eat"

"grass"
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Pragmatic Analysis
Analysis on the context of the sentences : where it was
said, by whom and why and what was said before
Example 1:
"Do you have the time?" means "what time is it?"
To look at the main goal of the sentence
Example 2:
" John just bought a car. He drove the car to work
today"
To look at the pronouns and associate it with the correct
noun
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Pragmatic Analysis
Identifying the goals and add them to the main
sentence will help to carry out this analysis.
Example:
Do you have the time?
S wants H to tell him the time

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Problem in Language
Main problem is ambiguity

Ambiguity in speech recognition - the sound of

the words are the same (homophones)
E.g: bear and bare

syntactic ambiguity - a word having more than

one possible syntactic category
E.g: She bats her eyelashes
'Bats' can be a verb or a noun

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Problem in Language

Semantic ambiguity - a word may have more than

one meaning (lexical ambiguity)
E.g:

"bank" can either be a river bank or a

financial institution

Pragmatic ambiguity - No clarity as to which

object a pronoun refers to (referential ambiguity)
E.g:

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John walks with Jim and he is wearing a

blue shirt

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Review Questions
What are the 4 stages of language?
Define ES?
What id NLP?
What is the relationship between ES and NLP?

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Question and Answer Session

Q&A
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What we will cover next

Topic and Structure of next session
Artificial Intelligence (Part 2)

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