Research Areas of AI
The domain of artificial intelligence is huge in breadth and width. While proceeding, we
consider the broadly common and prospering research areas in the domain of AI:
Speech and Voice Recognition
These both terms are common in robotics, expert systems and natural language processing.Though
these terms are used interchangeably, their objectives are different.
Speech Recognition Voice Recognition
The speech recognition aims at understanding
and comprehending WHAT was spoken. The objective of voice recognition is to
recognize WHO is speaking.
It is used in hand-free computing, map or It analyzes person’s tone, voice pitch, and
menu navigation accent, etc., to identify a person.
Machine does not need training as it is not The recognition system needs training as itis
speaker dependent. person-oriented.
Speaker independent Speech Recognition Speaker-dependent Speech Recognition
systems are difficult to develop. systems are comparatively easy to develop.
Working of Speech and Voice Recognition Systems
The user input spoken at a microphone goes to sound card of the system. The converter turns the analog
signal into equivalent digital signal for the speech processing. The database is usedto compare the patterns to
recognize the words. Finally, a reverse feedback is given to the database.
This source-language text becomes input to the Translation Engine, which converts it to the target language
text. They are supported with interactive GUI, large database of vocabulary etc.
RealLifeApplicationsofResearchAreas
There is a large array of applications where AI is serving common people in their day-to-daylives:
Expert systems
An expert system is AI software that uses knowledge stored in a knowledge base to solve problems that
would usually require a human expert thus preserving a human expert’s knowledge in its knowledge
base. These include flight-tracking system and clinical systems.
Natural language processing
The branch of artificial intelligence or AI —concerned with giving computers the ability to understand text
and spoken words in much the same way human beings can. Examples includes search engines, social
websites feed, speech engines, automatic voice output and spam filters.
Neural networks
A computer system modelled on the human brain and nervous system.
Examples: Pattern recognition systems such as face recognition, character recognition, handwriting
recognition.
Robotics
Robotics is an interdisciplinary field that integrates computer science and engineering.
Examples: Industrial robots for moving, spraying, painting, precision checking, drilling, cleaning, coating,
carving etc.
Fuzzy logic
Fuzzy logic is extensively used in modern control systems such as expert systems. Fuzzy Logic is used
with Neural Networks as it mimics how a person would make decisions, only much faster.
This is where the input data is unclear.
Examples: Consumer electronics, automobiles,etc.
Agents and Environments
An AI system is composed of an agent and its environment. The agents act in their
environment. The environment may contain other agents.
WhatareAgentandEnvironment?
An agent is anything that can perceive its environment through sensors and acts upon that
environment through effectors.
A human agent has sensory organs such as eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin parallelto the
sensors, and other organs such as hands, legs, mouth, for effectors.
A robotic agent replaces cameras and infrared range finders for the sensors, and
various motors and actuators for effectors.
A software agent has encoded bit strings as its programs and actions.
AgentsTerminology
Performance Measure of Agent: It is the criteria, which determines how successfulan
agent is.
Behavior of Agent: It is the action that agent performs after any given sequence of
percepts.
Percept: It is agent’s perceptual inputs at a given instance.
Percept Sequence: It is the history of all that an agent has perceived till date.
Agent Function: It is a map from the precept sequence to an action.
Rationality
Rationality is nothing but status of being reasonable, sensible, and having good sense of
judgment.
Rationality is concerned with expected actions and results depending upon what the agent has
perceived. Performing actions with the aim of obtaining useful information is an important part
of rationality.
WhatisIdealRationalAgent?
An ideal rational agent is the one, which is capable of doing expected actions to maximize its
performance measure, on the basis of:
Its percept sequence
Its built-in knowledge base
Rationality of an agent depends on the following:
1. The performance measures, which determine the degree of success.
2. Agent’s Percept Sequence till now.
3. The agent’s prior knowledge about the environment.
4. The actions that the agent can carry out.
A rational agent always performs right action, where the right action means the action that causes
the agent to be most successful in the given percept sequence. The problem the agent solves is
characterized by Performance Measure, Environment, Actuators, and Sensors(PEAS).
TheStructureofIntelligentAgents
Agent’s structure can be viewed as:
• Agent = Architecture + Agent Program
• Architecture = the machinery that an agent executes on.
• Agent Program = an implementation of an agent function.
Simple Reflex Agents
They choose actions only based on the current percept.
They are rational only if a correct decision is made only on the basis of current precept.
Their environment is completely observable.
Condition-Action Rule – It is a rule that maps a state (condition) to an action.
Model-Based Reflex Agents
They use a model of the world to choose their actions. They maintain an internal state.
Model: knowledge about “how the things happen in the world”.
Internal State: It is a representation of unobserved aspects of current state depending onpercept
history.
Updating state requires the information about
How the world evolves.
How the agent’s actions affect the world.
Goal-Based Agents
They choose their actions in order to achieve goals. Goal-based
approach is more flexible than reflex agent since the knowledge
supporting a decision is explicitly modeled, thereby allowing for
modifications.
Goal: It is the description of desirable situations.
Utility-Based Agents
They choose actions based on a preference (utility) for each state.
Goals are inadequate when:
There are conflicting goals only some of which can be achieved.
Goals have some uncertainty of being achieved and one
needs to weigh likelihood ofsuccess against the importance
of a goal.
TheNatureofEnvironments
Some programs operate in the entirely artificial environment
confined to keyboard input, database, computer file systems and
character output on a screen.
In contrast, some software agents (software robots or softbots) exist
in rich, unlimited softbots domains. The simulator has a very
detailed, complex environment. The software agent needs to
choose from a long array of actions in real time. A softbot designed
to scan the online preferences of the customer and show interesting
items to the customer works in the real as well as an artificial
environment.
The most famous artificial environment is the Turing Test
environment, in which one real and other artificial agents are
tested on equal ground. This is a very challenging environment as it
is highly difficult for a software agent to perform as well as a
human.
Turing Test
The success of an intelligent behavior of a system can be measured with Turing Test.
Two persons and a machine to be evaluated participate in the test. Out of
the two persons, one plays the role of the tester. Each of them sits in
different rooms. The tester is unaware of who is machine and who is a
human. He interrogates the questions by typing and sending them to both
intelligences, to which he receives typed responses.
This test aims at fooling the tester. If the tester fails to determine machine’s response fromthe
human response, then the machine is said to be intelligent.
PropertiesofEnvironment
Discrete / Continuous: If there are a limited number of distinct, clearly defined,
states of the environment, the environment is discrete (For example, chess);
otherwiseit is continuous (For example, driving).
Observable / Partially Observable: If it is possible to determine the complete state
of the environment at each time point from the percepts it is observable; otherwise
itis only partially observable.
Static / Dynamic: If the environment does not change while an agent is acting, then
it is static; otherwise it is dynamic.
Single agent / Multiple agents: The environment may contain other agents which
may be of the same or different kind as that of the agent.
Accessible vs. inaccessible: If the agent’s sensory apparatus can have access to the
complete state of the environment, then the environment is accessible to that agent.
Deterministic vs. Non-deterministic: If the next state of the environment is
completely determined by the current state and the actions of the agent, then the
environment is deterministic; otherwise it is non-deterministic.
Episodic vs. Non-episodic: In an episodic environment, each episode consists of
the agent perceiving and then acting. The quality of its action depends just on the
episode itself. Subsequent episodes do not depend on the actions in the previous
episodes. Episodic environments are much simpler because the agent does not need
to think ahead.