Module 1- Artificial Intelligence

1.1 Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

In today's world, technology is growing very fast, and we are getting in touch with
different new technologies day by day.

Here, one of the booming technologies of computer science is Artificial Intelligence

which is ready to create a new revolution in the world by making intelligent
[Link] Artificial Intelligence is now all around us. It is currently working with a
variety of subfields, ranging from general to specific, such as self-driving cars, playing
chess, proving theorems, playing music, Painting, etc.

Artificial Intelligence is composed of two words Artificial and Intelligence, where

Artificial defines "man-made," and intelligence defines "thinking power", hence AI means
"a man-made thinking power."

"It is a branch of computer science by which we can create intelligent machines which
can behave like a human, think like humans, and able to make decisions."

● Artificial Intelligence exists when a machine can have human based skills such
as learning, reasoning, and solving problems
● With Artificial Intelligence you do not need to preprogram a machine to do some
work, despite that you can create a machine with programmed algorithms which
can work with own intelligence, and that is the awesomeness of AI.
● It is believed that AI is not a new technology, and some people says that as per
Greek myth, there were Mechanical men in early days which can work and
behave like humans.
1.2 Why Artificial Intelligence?

Before Learning about Artificial Intelligence, we should know that what is the importance
of AI and why should we learn it. Following are some main reasons to learn about AI:

● With the help of AI, you can create such software or devices which can solve
real-world problems very easily and with accuracy such as health issues,
marketing, traffic issues, etc.
● With the help of AI, you can create your personal virtual Assistant, such as
Cortana, Google Assistant, Siri, etc.
● With the help of AI, you can build such Robots which can work in an environment
where survival of humans can be at risk.
● AI opens a path for other new technologies, new devices, and new Opportunities.

1.3 Goals of Artificial Intelligence

Following are the main goals of Artificial Intelligence:

1. Replicate human intelligence

2. Solve Knowledge-intensive tasks
3. An intelligent connection of perception and action
4. Building a machine which can perform tasks that requires human intelligence
such as:
○ Proving a theorem
○ Playing chess
○ Plan some surgical operation
○ Driving a car in traffic
5. Creating some system which can exhibit intelligent behavior, learn new things by
itself, demonstrate, explain, and can advise its user.

1.4 What Contributes to Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence is not just a part of computer science even it's so vast and requires
lots of other factors which can contribute to it. To create the AI first we should know that
how intelligence is composed, so the Intelligence is an intangible part of our brain which
is a combination of Reasoning, learning, problem-solving perception, language
understanding, etc.

To achieve the above factors for a machine or software Artificial Intelligence requires
the following discipline:

● Mathematics
● Biology
● Psychology
● Sociology
● Computer Science
● Neurons Study
● Statistics
1.5 Advantages of Artificial Intelligence
Following are some main advantages of Artificial Intelligence:

● High Accuracy with less errors: AI machines or systems are prone to less
errors and high accuracy as it takes decisions as per pre-experience or
information.
● High-Speed: AI systems can be of very high-speed and fast-decision making,
because of that AI systems can beat a chess champion in the Chess game.
● High reliability: AI machines are highly reliable and can perform the same
action multiple times with high accuracy.
● Useful for risky areas: AI machines can be helpful in situations such as
defusing a bomb, exploring the ocean floor, where to employ a human can be
risky.
● Digital Assistant: AI can be very useful to provide digital assistant to the users
such as AI technology is currently used by various E-commerce websites to
show the products as per customer requirement.
● Useful as a public utility: AI can be very useful for public utilities such as a self-
driving car which can make our journey safer and hassle-free, facial recognition
for security purpose, Natural language processing to communicate with the
human in human-language, etc.

Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence

Every technology has some disadvantages, and the same goes for Artificial intelligence.
Being so advantageous technology still, it has some disadvantages which we need to
keep in our mind while creating an AI system. Following are the disadvantages of AI:

● High Cost: The hardware and software requirement of AI is very costly as it

requires lots of maintenance to meet current world requirements.
● Can't think out of the box: Even we are making smarter machines with AI, but
still they cannot work out of the box, as the robot will only do that work for which
they are trained, or programmed.
● No feelings and emotions: AI machines can be an outstanding performer, but
still it does not have the feeling so it cannot make any kind of emotional
attachment with human, and may sometime be harmful for users if the proper
care is not taken.
● Increase dependency on machines: With the increment of technology, people
are getting more dependent on devices and hence they are losing their mental
capabilities.
● No Original Creativity: As humans are so creative and can imagine some new
ideas but still AI machines cannot beat this power of human intelligence and
cannot be creative and imaginative.

1.6 Current Trends in Artificial Intelligence

The focus of AI adoption is restricted to improving the efficiency of operations or the
effectiveness of operations. It can be leveraged to improve the stakeholder experience
as well. Let us take a look at the top trends expected in 2021.

1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

To streamline business processes and reduce costs, more CIOs are turning to an
evolving technology practice called Robotic Process Automation (RPA). With RPA,
organizations can automate rule-based tedious business processes, allowing their
workforce to devote more time to serving clients or other higher-value work.
RPA is aimed at the automation of business processes, governed by business logic and
organized inputs. RPA solutions can range from something as easy as producing an
automated email response to deploying thousands of bots, each programmed in an
ERP system to automate rule-based tasks. RPA is being implemented across industry
verticals like manufacturing, KPO, HR, and finance.
2. Conversational AI
AI-powered chatbots, also known as Conversational AI, enhance the customer
experience’s reach, responsiveness, and personalization. According to Forrester,
conversational AI solutions transform into better automation of customer service.
To better understand what the human says and needs, an AI-powered chatbot uses
natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to provide a more natural,
near-human-level interaction.
3. The role of AI in Healthcare
Big Data has been extensively used to identify COVID patients and critical hot points. AI
is already helping the healthcare sector to a great degree with high accuracy. Besides,
researchers have developed thermal cameras and mobile applications to monitor
individual temperatures and to collect data for healthcare organizations.
By leveraging data analysis and predicting various outcomes, AI can support healthcare
facilities in several unique ways. AI and ML instruments offer insights into human health
and also recommend preventive steps to avoid the spread of diseases. AI solutions also
help doctors remotely track the health of their patients, thereby advancing
teleconsultation and remote care.
4. Increase in demand for ethical AI
There is a growing demand for ethical AI and it is at the top of the list of emerging
developments in technology. The next decade, according to Forrester, will require CIOs
to both respond to digital acceleration and proactively handle uncertainty and business
continuity with the ethical use of Artificial Intelligence.
Looking at how trends are rapidly changing, values-based customers and workers
expect businesses to implement AI responsibly. Companies will actively choose to do
business with partners committed to data ethics in the next few years.
5. AI for Cybersecurity and knowledge breach
In the coming years, knowledge will grow to be extra accessible, and digital data will be
at greater risk of being compromised and exposed to hacking and phishing attacks. AI
and emerging technology will provide the security department with support in every area
against malicious activities. AI will help deter cybercrimes in the future with improved
cybersecurity measures. Fake digital activity or transactions that match criminal trends
will be detected by the AI-enabled framework.
6. The Intersection of the Internet of Things with AI (AIoT)
There is a growing blurring of boundaries between AI and IoT. Although both
technologies have individual characteristics, when used together, better and more
unique possibilities open up. The confluence of AI and IoT is primarily the reason we
have intelligent voice assistants such as Alexa and Siri.
The ability of AI to gain insights from data quickly makes IoT solutions more intelligent.
Gartner predicts that more than 80 percent of enterprise IoT projects will implement AI
in some way by 2022.
7. Natural Language Processing (NLP)
NLP is one of the widely used applications of AI in the present time. NLP’s growing
popularity can be credited to its significant usage as Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
The need for writing or communicating with a screen has been eliminated by NLP as
now humans can communicate with robots that understand their language.
In 2021, the use of NLP for sentiment analysis, machine translation, process
description, auto-video caption generation, and chatbots is expected to increase.
8. Reinforcement Learning
Reinforced learning (RL) is a specific application of deep learning that works based on
its experience to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of data. Some use cases of
RL are robotics in planning business strategies, optimizing advertisement content,
automating industries, controlling aircraft, and making motion control robots.
9. Quantum AI
To measure the Qubits for use in supercomputers, advanced companies will begin
using quantum supremacy. Because of quantum bits, quantum computers solve
problems at a quicker pace than classic computers do. Besides, they assist in the
interpretation of data and then forecast several unique trends.
Quantum computers will help multiple organizations identify inaccessible issues and
also predict meaningful solutions. Future computers will also support diverse use cases
in fields like healthcare, finance, and chemistry.
10. AI-Powered Business Forecasting, and Analysis
AI solutions assist in redefining business processing with real-time alerts. Researchers
paired hyper-automation with cognitive automation to deeply understand market needs.
Content-intelligent technologies, along with AI-supportive practices, will assist digital
workers to develop outstanding abilities. Such skills can help them cope with the
automation of natural language, judgment, context formation, reasoning, and data-
related insights.
11. Edge Computing
Edge computing provides gadgets with servers and data storage to access their devices
and allows them to put data into them. It is defined as data processing in real-time and
is more powerful than cloud computing services. There is another instance of edge
computing that is carried on nodes. It is a mini-server located in the vicinity of a local
telecommunications provider. Nodes help to build a bridge between the local service
provider and the cloud. It costs less, saves time, and provides customers with fast
service.
12. Rise of a Hybrid workforce
Post the COVID-19 pandemic, companies will hop onto the RPA bandwagon, which
means that cognitive AI and RPA will be widely applied to cope with high-volume,
repetitive activities. As examples of growing usage arise, the office will move to a hybrid
workforce environment. The human workforce will work with automated bots and
various digital assistants. The emergence of a hybrid workforce will imply more
collaborative experiences with AI.

1.7 Types of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence can be divided in various types, there are mainly two types of main
categorization which are based on capabilities and based on functionally of AI.
Following is flow diagram which explain the types of AI.

AI Type 1: Based on Capabilities

1. Weak AI or Narrow AI:-
● Narrow AI is a type of AI which is able to perform a dedicated task with
[Link] most common and currently available AI is Narrow AI in the world
of Artificial Intelligence.
● Narrow AI cannot perform beyond its field or limitations, as it is only trained for one
specific task. Hence it is also termed as weak AI. Narrow AI can fail in
unpredictable ways if it goes beyond its limits.
● Apple Siriis a good example of Narrow AI, but it operates with a limited pre-defined
range of functions.
● IBM's Watson supercomputer also comes under Narrow AI, as it uses an Expert
system approach combined with Machine learning and natural language
processing.
● Some Examples of Narrow AI are playing chess, purchasing suggestions on e-
commerce site, self-driving cars, speech recognition, and image recognition.

2. General AI:-

● General AI is a type of intelligence which could perform any intellectual task with
efficiency like a human.
● The idea behind the general AI to make such a system which could be smarter and
think like a human by its own.
● Currently, there is no such system exist which could come under general AI and
can perform any task as perfect as a human.
● The worldwide researchers are now focused on developing machines with General
AI.
● As systems with general AI are still under research, and it will take lots of efforts
and time to develop such systems.

3. Super AI:-

● Super AI is a level of Intelligence of Systems at which machines could surpass

human intelligence, and can perform any task better than human with cognitive
properties. It is an outcome of general AI.
● Some key characteristics of strong AI include capability include the ability to
think, to reason,solve the puzzle, make judgments, plan, learn, and communicate
by its own.
● Super AI is still a hypothetical concept of Artificial Intelligence. Development of
 such systems in real is still world changing task.

AI Type 2:- Based on Functionality

1. Reactive Machines
● Purely reactive machines are the most basic types of Artificial Intelligence.
● Such AI systems do not store memories or past experiences for future actions.
● These machines only focus on current scenarios and react on it as per possible
best action.
● IBM's Deep Blue system is an example of reactive machines.
● Google's AlphaGo is also an example of reactive machines.

2. Limited Memory

● Limited memory machines can store past experiences or some data for a short
period of time.
● These machines can use stored data for a limited time period only.
● Self-driving cars are one of the best examples of Limited Memory systems.
These cars can store recent speed of nearby cars, the distance of other cars,
speed limit, and other information to navigate the road.
3. Theory of mind
● Theory of Mind AI should understand the human emotions, people, beliefs, and
be able to interact socially like humans.
● This type of AI machines are still not developed, but researchers are making lots
of efforts and improvement for developing such AI machines.

4. Self Awareness
 ● Self-awareness AI is the future of Artificial Intelligence. These machines will be
super intelligent, and will have their own consciousness, sentiments, and self-
awareness.
● These machines will be smarter than human mind.
● Self-Awareness AI does not exist in reality still and it is a hypothetical concept.

1.8 Agents in Artificial Intelligence

An AI system can be defined as the study of the rational agent and its environment. The
agents sense the environment through sensors and act on their environment through
actuators. An AI agent can have mental properties such as knowledge, belief, intention,
etc.
What is an Agent?
An agent can be anything that perceiveits environment through sensors and act upon
that environment through actuators. An Agent runs in the cycle of perceiving, thinking,
and acting. An agent can be:

● Human-Agent: A human agent has eyes, ears, and other organs which work for
sensors and hand, legs, vocal tract work for actuators.
● Robotic Agent: A robotic agent can have cameras, infrared range finder, NLP
for sensors and various motors for actuators.
● Software Agent: Software agent can have keystrokes, file contents as sensory
input and act on those inputs and display output on the screen.

Hence the world around us is full of agents such as thermostat, cellphone, camera, and
even we are also agents.
Before moving forward, we should first know about sensors, effectors, and actuators.
Sensor: Sensor is a device which detects the change in the environment and sends the
information to other electronic devices. An agent observes its environment through
sensors.
Actuators: Actuators are the component of machines that converts energy into motion.
The actuators are only responsible for moving and controlling a system. An actuator
can be an electric motor, gears, rails, etc.
Effectors: Effectors are the devices which affect the environment. Effectors can be legs,
wheels, arms, fingers, wings, fins, and display screen.

1.8.1 Intelligent Agents

An intelligent agent is an autonomous entity which act upon an environment using
sensors and actuators for achieving goals. An intelligent agent may learn from the
environment to achieve their goals. A thermostat is an example of an intelligent agent.
Following are the main four rules for an AI agent:

● Rule 1: An AI agent must have the ability to perceive the environment.

● Rule 2: The observation must be used to make decisions.
● Rule 3: Decision should result in an action.
● Rule 4: The action taken by an AI agent must be a rational action.

1.8.2 Rational Agent

A rational agent is an agent which has clear preference, models uncertainty, and acts in
a way to maximize its performance measure with all possible actions.

A rational agent is said to perform the right things. AI is about creating rational agents to
use for game theory and decision theory for various real-world scenarios.

For an AI agent, the rational action is most important because in AI reinforcement

learning algorithm, for each best possible action, agent gets the positive reward and for
each wrong action, an agent gets a negative reward.

Rationality

The rationality of an agent is measured by its performance measure. Rationality can be

judged on the basis of following points:

● Performance measure which defines the success criterion.

● Agent prior knowledge of its environment.
● Best possible actions that an agent can perform.
● The sequence of percepts.

1.8.3 Structure of AI Agent

The task of AI is to design an agent program which implements the agent function. The
structure of an intelligent agent is a combination of architecture and agent program. It
can be viewed as:

Agent = Architecture + Agent program

Following are the main three terms involved in the structure of an AI agent:
Architecture: Architecture is machinery that an AI agent executes on.
Agent Function: Agent function is used to map a percept to an action.

Agent program: Agent program is an implementation of agent function. An agent

program executes on the physical architecture to produce function f.

1.8.4 PEAS Representation

PEAS is a type of model on which an AI agent works upon. When we define an AI agent
or rational agent, then we can group its properties under the PEAS representation
model. It is made up of four words:

● P: Performance measure
 ● E: Environment
● A: Actuators
● S: Sensors

Here performance measure is the objective for the success of an agent's behavior.

PEAS for self driving cars

Let's suppose a self-driving car then PEAS representation will be:

Performance: Safety, time, legal drive, comfort
Environment: Roads, other vehicles, road signs, pedestrian
Actuators: Steering, accelerator, brake, signal, horn
Sensors: Camera, GPS, speedometer, odometer, accelerometer, sonar.

Examples of Agents with their PEAS Representation

Agent Performance Environment Actuators Sensors

measure

1. Medical Keyboard
● Healthy ● Patient ● Tests
Diagnose (Entry of
patient ● Hospital ●
symptoms)
● Minimized ● Staff
cost Treatme
nts

2. Vacuum
● Cleanness ● Room ● Wheels ● Camera
Cleaner
● Efficiency ● Table ● Brushes ● Dirt
● Battery life ● Wood ● Vacuum detection
● Security floor Extractor sensor
● Carpet ● Cliff
● Various sensor
obstacles ● Bump
Sensor
● Infrared
Wall
Sensor
3. Part -
● ● Conveyor ● Jointed ● Camera
picking
belt with Arms ● Joint
Robot Percentag parts, ● Hand angle
e of parts ● Bins sensors.
in correct
bins.

1.8.5 Types if AI Agents

Agents can be grouped into five classes based on their degree of perceived intelligence
and capability. All these agents can improve their performance and generate better
action over the time. These are given below:

● Simple Reflex Agent

● Model-based reflex agent
● Goal-based agents
● Utility-based agent
● Learning agent

1. Simple Reflex Agent

● The Simple reflex agents are the simplest agents. These agents take decisions
on the basis of the current percepts and ignore the rest of the percept history.
● These agents only succeed in the fully observable environment.
● The Simple reflex agent does not consider any part of percepts history during
their decision and action process.
● The Simple reflex agent works on Condition-action rule, which means it maps the
current state to action. Such as a Room Cleaner agent, it works only if there is
dirt in the room.
● Problems for the simple reflex agent design approach:
○ They have very limited intelligence
○ They do not have knowledge of non-perceptual parts of the current state
○ Mostly too big to generate and to store.
○ Not adaptive to changes in the environment.
2. Model Based Reflex Agents

● The Model-based agent can work in a partially observable environment, and

track the situation.
● A model-based agent has two important factors:
a. Model: It is knowledge about "how things happen in the world," so it is
called a Model-based agent.
b. Internal State: It is a representation of the current state based on percept
history.
● These agents have the model, "which is knowledge of the world" and based on
the model they perform actions.
● Updating the agent state requires information about:
a. How the world evolves
b. How the agent's action affects the world.
3. Goal Based Agents

● The knowledge of the current state environment is not always sufficient to

decide for an agent to what to do.
● The agent needs to know its goal which describes desirable situations.
● Goal-based agents expand the capabilities of the model-based agent by having
the "goal" information.
● They choose an action, so that they can achieve the goal.
● These agents may have to consider a long sequence of possible actions before
deciding whether the goal is achieved or not. Such considerations of different
scenario are called searching and planning, which makes an agent proactive.

4. Utility Based Agents

 ● These agents are similar to the goal-based agent but provide an extra component
of utility measurement which makes them different by providing a measure of
success at a given state.
● Utility-based agent act based not only goals but also the best way to achieve the
goal.
● The Utility-based agent is useful when there are multiple possible alternatives,
and an agent has to choose in order to perform the best action.
● The utility function maps each state to a real number to check how efficiently
each action achieves the goals.

5. Learning Agents

● A learning agent in AI is the type of agent which can learn from its past
experiences, or it has learning capabilities.
● It starts to act with basic knowledge and then able to act and adapt automatically
through learning.
● A learning agent has mainly four conceptual components, which are:
a. Learning element: It is responsible for making improvements by learning
from environment
b. Critic: Learning element takes feedback from critic which describes that
how well the agent is doing with respect to a fixed performance standard.
c. Performance element: It is responsible for selecting external action
d. Problem generator: This component is responsible for suggesting actions
that will lead to new and informative experiences.
● Hence, learning agents are able to learn, analyze performance, and look for new
ways to improve the performance.
1.8.6 Agents Environment in AI
An environment is everything in the world which surrounds the agent, but it is not a
part of an agent itself. An environment can be described as a situation in which an
agent is present.

The environment is where agent lives, operate and provide the agent with something
to sense and act upon it. An environment is mostly said to be non-feministic.
Features of Environment

As per Russell and Norvig, an environment can have various features from the point of
view of an agent:

1. Fully observable vs Partially Observable

2. Static vs Dynamic
3. Discrete vs Continuous
4. Deterministic vs Stochastic
5. Single-agent vs Multi-agent
6. Episodic vs sequential
7. Known vs Unknown
8. Accessible vs Inaccessible

1. Fully Observable vs Partially Observable

● If an agent sensor can sense or access the complete state of an environment at

each point of time then it is a fully observable environment, else it is partially
 observable.
● A fully observable environment is easy as there is no need to maintain the
internal state to keep track history of the world.
● An agent with no sensors in all environments then such an environment is called
as unobservable.

2. Deterministic vs Stochastic

● If an agent's current state and selected action can completely determine the next
state of the environment, then such environment is called a deterministic
environment.
● A stochastic environment is random in nature and cannot be determined
completely by an agent.
● In a deterministic, fully observable environment, agent does not need to worry
about uncertainty.
3. Episodic vs Sequential

● In an episodic environment, there is a series of one-shot actions, and only the

current percept is required for the action.
● However, in Sequential environment, an agent requires memory of past actions
to determine the next best actions.

4. Single Agent vs Multiple Agents

● If only one agent is involved in an environment, and operating by itself then such
an environment is called single agent environment.
● However, if multiple agents are operating in an environment, then such an
environment is called a multi-agent environment.
● The agent design problems in the multi-agent environment are different from
single agent environment.

5. Static vs Dynamic

● If the environment can change itself while an agent is deliberating then such
environment is called a dynamic environment else it is called a static
environment.
● Static environments are easy to deal because an agent does not need to
continue looking at the world while deciding for an action.
● However for dynamic environment, agents need to keep looking at the world at
each action.
● Taxi driving is an example of a dynamic environment whereas Crossword
puzzles are an example of a static environment.

6. Discrete vs Continuous

● If in an environment there are a finite number of percepts and actions that can be
performed within it, then such an environment is called a discrete environment
else it is called continuous environment.
● A chess gamecomes under discrete environment as there is a finite number of
moves that can be performed.
● A self-driving car is an example of a continuous environment.

7. Known vs Unknown

● Known and unknown are not actually a feature of an environment, but it is an

agent's state of knowledge to perform an action.
● In a known environment, the results for all actions are known to the agent. While
in unknown environment, agent needs to learn how it works in order to perform
an action.
● It is quite possible that a known environment to be partially observable and an
Unknown environment to be fully observable.

8. Accessible vs Inaccessible

● If an agent can obtain complete and accurate information about the state's
 environment, then such an environment is called an Accessible environment else
it is called inaccessible.
● An empty room whose state can be defined by its temperature is an example of
an accessible environment.
● Information about an event on earth is an example of Inaccessible environment.

1.9 Turing Test in AI

In 1950, Alan Turing introduced a test to check whether a machine can think like a
human or not, this test is known as the Turing Test. In this test, Turing proposed that the
computer can be said to be an intelligent if it can mimic human response under specific
conditions.

Turing Test was introduced by Turing in his 1950 paper, "Computing Machinery and
Intelligence," which considered the question, "Can Machine think?"

The Turing test is based on a party game "Imitation game," with some modifications.
This game involves three players in which one player is Computer, another player is
human responder, and the third player is a human Interrogator, who is isolated from
other two players and his job is to find that which player is machine among two of them.

Consider, Player A is a computer, Player B is human, and Player C is an interrogator.

Interrogator is aware that one of them is machine, but he needs to identify this on the
basis of questions and their responses.

The conversation between all players is via keyboard and screen so the result would not
depend on the machine's ability to convert words as speech.

The test result does not depend on each correct answer, but only how closely its
responses like a human answer. The computer is permitted to do everything possible to
force a wrong identification by the interrogator.

he questions and answers can be like:

Interrogator: Are you a computer?

PlayerA (Computer): No

Interrogator: Multiply two large numbers such as (256896489*456725896)

Player A: Long pause and give the wrong answer.

In this game, if an interrogator would not be able to identify which is a machine and
which is human, then the computer passes the test successfully, and the machine is
said to be intelligent and can think like a human.

"In 1991, the New York businessman Hugh Loebner announces the prize competition,
offering a $100,000 prize for the first computer to pass the Turing test. However, no AI
program to till date, come close to passing an undiluted Turing test".
1.10 Search Algorithms in Artificial Intelligence
Search algorithms are one of the most important areas of Artificial Intelligence. This
topic will explain all about the search algorithms in AI.

1.10.1 Problem Solving agents

In Artificial Intelligence, Search techniques are universal problem-solving methods.
Rational agents or Problem-solving agents in AI mostly used these search strategies or
algorithms to solve a specific problem and provide the best result. Problem-solving
agents are the goal-based agents and use atomic representation. In this topic, we will
learn various problem-solving search algorithms.

1.10.2 Search Algorithm Terminologies

● Search: Searchingis a step by step procedure to solve a search-problem in a

given search space. A search problem can have three main factors:
a. Search Space: Search space represents a set of possible solutions, which
a system may have.
b. Start State: It is a state from where agent begins the search.
c. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns
whether the goal state is achieved or not.
● Search tree: A tree representation of search problem is called Search tree. The
root of the search tree is the root node which is corresponding to the initial state.
● Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent.
● Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a
transition model.
● Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path.
● Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal
node.
● Optimal Solution: If a solution has the lowest cost among all solutions.

1.10.3 Properties of Search Algorithm

Following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to compare the
efficiency of these algorithms:
Completeness: A search algorithm is said to be complete if it guarantees to return a
solution if at least any solution exists for any random input.
Optimality: If a solution found for an algorithm is guaranteed to be the best solution
(lowest path cost) among all other solutions, then such a solution for is said to be an
optimal solution.
Time Complexity: Time complexity is a measure of time for an algorithm to complete
its task.
Space Complexity: It is the maximum storage space required at any point during the
search, as the complexity of the problem.

1.10.4 Types of Search Algorithms

Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into uninformed
(Blind search) search and informed search (Heuristic search) algorithms.

1. Uniformed/Blind Search
The uninformed search does not contain any domain knowledge such as closeness, the
location of the goal. It operates in a brute-force way as it only includes information
about how to traverse the tree and how to identify leaf and goal nodes. Uninformed
search applies a way in which search tree is searched without any information about the
search space like initial state operators and test for the goal, so it is also called blind
[Link] examines each node of the tree until it achieves the goal node.

It can be divided into five main types:

● Breadth-first search
● Uniform cost search
● Depth-first search
 ● Iterative deepening depth-first search
● Bidirectional Search

2. Informed Search

Informed search algorithms use domain knowledge. In an informed search, problem

information is available which can guide the search. Informed search strategies can find
a solution more efficiently than an uninformed search strategy. Informed search is also
called a Heuristic search.

A heuristic is a way which might not always be guaranteed for best solutions but
guaranteed to find a good solution in reasonable time.

An example of informed search algorithms is a traveling salesman problem.

1. Greedy Search
2. A* Search