Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
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Process and manipulate symbols.
People see, manipulate, and process symbols every day.
Visual images provide a constant stream of information to our brains. By contrast, com-
puters have difficulty handling symbolic processing and reasoning. Although computers
excel at numerical calculations, they aren't as good at dealing with symbols and three-
dimensional objects. Recent developments in machine-vision hardware and software,
however, allow some computers to process and manipulate symbols on a limited basis.
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Be creative and imaginative.
Throughout history, some people have turned difficult
situations into advantages by being creative and imaginative. For instance, when shipped
defective mints with holes in the middle, an enterprising entrepreneur decided to market
these new mints as LifeSavers instead of returning them to the manufacturer. Ice cream
cones were invented at the St. Louis World's Fair when an imaginative store owner
decided to wrap ice cream with a waffle from his grill for portability. Developing new
and exciting products and services from an existing (perhaps negative) situation is a
human characteristic. Few computers can be imaginative or creative in this way, although
software has been developed to enable a computer to write short stories.
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Use heuristics.
For some decisions, people use heuristics (rules of thumb arising from
experience) or even guesses. In searching for a job, you might rank the companies
you are considering according to profits per employee. Today, some computer systems,
given the right programs, obtain good solutions that use approximations instead of trying
to search for an optimal solution, which would be technically difficult or too time
consuming.
This list of traits only partially defines intelligence. Unlike the terminology used in virtually
every other field of IS research, in which the objectives can be clearly defined, the term
intelligence
is a formidable stumbling block. One of the problems in AI is arriving at a working
definition of real intelligence against which to compare the performance of an AI system.
The Difference Between Natural and Artificial Intelligence
Since the term
artificial intelligence
was defined in the 1950s, experts have disagreed about
the difference between natural and artificial intelligence. Can computers be programmed to
have common sense? Profound differences separate natural from artificial intelligence, but
they are declining in number (see Table 11.2). One of the driving forces behind AI research
is an attempt to understand how people actually reason and think. Creating machines that
can reason is possible only when we truly understand our own processes for doing so.
The Major Branches of Artificial Intelligence
AI is a broad field that includes several specialty areas, such as expert systems, robotics, vision
systems, natural language processing, learning systems, and neural networks (see Figure 11.5).
Many of these areas are related; advances in one can occur simultaneously with or result in
advances in others.
Expert Systems
An
expert system
consists of hardware and software that stores knowledge and makes infer-
expert systems are discussed in more detail in the next several sections of the chapter.
expert system
Hardware and software that stores
knowledge and makes inferences,
similar to a human expert.
Robotics
Robotics
involves developing mechanical or computer devices that can paint cars, make
precision welds, and perform other tasks that require a high degree of precision or are tedious
the 1920s, when he used the word “robota” to describe factory machines that do drudgery
According to Takeo Kande, “Someday, robots will do more than vacuum your floors. They'll
robotics
Mechanical or computer devices
that perform tasks requiring a high
degree of precision or that are
tedious or hazardous for humans.
