Artificial Intelligence

1. What is AI?
2. Issues in AI

An Overview
- AI is a science of making intelligent machines
- Intelligence is a type of computation:
What is a computation?
Turing Machines
- How do we know if a machine is intelligent or
not?
Turing Test

1. What is AI?
Artificial intelligence is the science and
engineering of making computer programs that exhibit
characteristics of human intelligence.
Scientific aim: To understand the requirements for and
mechanisms of human, animal, machine, robotic
intelligence
Engineering aim: To apply such knowledge in building
useful artifacts (machines & robots) capable to do
things done by humans or animals

 What is intelligence?
- Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to solve
problems and achieve goals in the world in an efficient manner
(McCarthy)
- Computational part .. to do efficiently Algorithm
(e.g.)
Tower of Hanoi Problem:
Tic-tac-toe:
Chess:
No. of all possible board states: 10120!!
- Combinatorial explosion problem
- Blind search intractable

Tower of Hanoi

Branches of AI
Knowledge representation
- Processing information about and representing facts about the
world in some abstract way

Pattern recognition
- Extracting knowledge from images (e.g., letters, face, X-ray
data, satellite photos)

Reasoning and inference

- Deriving conclusions from premises or incomplete
observations (e.g., logical deduction, math theorem proving,
medical diagnosis, stock market/weather forecasting)

Machine learning
- Improving performance from experience (e.g., rule induction &
adaptive modification)

Planning
- Planning a complex sequence of actions (e.g., playing chess)

Natural language processing

- Production and interpretation of spoken and written language

Pattern recognition
Knowledge representation
Reasoning & inference
Machine learning

Applications of AI
Computer vision
- IRIS (biometric identification device), detection of
forgeries, chip inspection
Expert systems
- MYCIN (medical diagnosis), HYPO (legal reasoning),
auto pilot, intelligent tutoring system
Game playing
- IBMS Deep Blue (search 2m positions per sec)
Speech recognition
- Dragon Naturally Speaking
Robotics
- robot moles in Mars exploration

Dartmouth Workshop

(1956)
- Summer workshop that officially launched the field
known as Artificial Intelligence (named by McCarthy)
- Participants included: McCarthy (Stanford), Minsky
(MIT), Shannon (Lucent), Newell (CMU), Simon (CMU)

General Problem Solver (GPS)

(Newell & Simon, 1960s)
- Landmark computer program that solves simple
problems/puzzles (e.g., Tower of Hanoi) and even comes
up with proofs for mathematical theorems
- Based on a general problem solving strategy called the
mean-ends analysis (work backward from the goal to
decide on what action(s) will help you achieve in which
goals are decomposed into subgoals in a recursive
fashion)

Weak AI vs Strong AI
in the Study of Mind
(Searl 1980)

Weak AI:
- The principal value of the computer in the study of
mind is that it gives us a very powerful tool.

Strong AI:
- An appropriately programmed computer literally has
cognitive states and therefore explains how the
human mind works.

2. Issues in AI

Issue #1:
What is a computation?

Turing Machines

(Turing, 1937)

- A Turing Machine, an idealized, mathematical abstraction of a

digital computer, consists of
(1) 1-dim tape of cells of unlimited length
(written on each cell is a symbol from finite alphabet)

(2) read/write head

(3) control (action) table or program

Control program:
Condition (IF)
Current
state

Action (THEN)

Symbol
read

Symbol
to write

Move the New state

head to

S1

Left

S3

S2

Right

S1

S3

Left

S2

- State of head: {S1, S2, S3}

- Binary alphabet on tape: {0,1}
- Movement of head: {Left, Right}

A Turing machine that computes:

2 x 4 = 8

(Turings) Definition of computation

- A function is said to be computable if it can be implemented on
a Turing Machine.
- Such functions are called Turing computable functions
(e.g., f(x) = 0; natural log e; +/x; if-then)
- Roughly speaking, a function or task is computable if its
solution can be found in finite time (or polynomial time).
- A problem in which the time required to solve grows
exponentially as the problem size grows said to be
uncomputable (i.e., unsolvable), thereby requiring infinite
time to solve NP-hard problem
(e.g., Traveling Salesman Problem)

Traveling Salesman Problem

16-city problem

A candidate solution

Universal (Turing) Machine

- Turing also showed that it is possible to design a single
Turing machine that can simulate any Turing machine.
Such a machine is called a Universal Turing Machine
Church-Turing Thesis:
In essence, A Universal Turing Machine can compute
any non-NP-hard problem.
(e.g.)
- Programmable computers (PC, MaC)
von Neumann Machine
- program control/action table unit
- CPU read/write head unit
- RAM - tape
- DNA (biological computation device)

Issue #2:
How do we know if a machine is
intelligent or not?

Turing Test

(Turing, 1951)

- First attempt to define an operational definition of

intelligence
- Turing defined intelligent behavior as the ability to
exhibit human-like performance, sufficient to fool an
interrogator in an imitation game

Can the Turing test be a definition of

intelligence?!%
1. A computer may pass the test but without real
understanding of the conversation that took place (e.g.,
Searls Chinese Room)
2. Many real human beings might fail the test.
3. A computer often exhibits intelligence without being a
conversational partner (e.g., autopilot)

Chinese Room

(Searle, 1980)

- Thought experiment developed as an attack on the

Turing Test (againt Strong AI)
- Showed that in theory, it is possible to create a system
that exhibits intelligent output without understanding
(i.e., in the absence of mind), thus passing the Turing
test

- Would it be practically possible to build such a system?

Why or why not?