Introduction
The term AI cannot be explained in a few words
or sentences. It is an amalgamation of logic, philosophy and computer
technology. Even though man has been included under the category mammals, his
status is an elevated one. This is primarily due to the fact that human beings
are blessed with intelligence. It can be seen that only few animals like the
ape have been endowed with a small percentage of intelligence. A human being on
the other hand has a personality, habits, traits, memory etc, which could be
horned to a higher degree. This is where humans differ from other creatures.
For example, we may be able to recognize a person even after twenty years. This
is because an image of the person, his mannerisms, voice etc may have been
recorded in our brain and lay dormant for years. The memory can be triggered
which produces brain waves to bring forth the image or thoughts that may have
been stored for over a long period of time. This is an extremely complex
process which happens in the brain. All the events that follow have not been
completely understood. This explains why advances in the area of artificial
intelligence are yet to produce a machine which can simulate the human
brain.
It may be an easy task for a three year old to
move among toys strewn across a room without touching it. A robot may not be
able to do this with the same ease and effectiveness. A human being has sense
organs, which recognize sights, sounds, smells etc that are transmitted through
neurons to the brain at the speed of light. This is the reason why we react to
sensations. The muscles of the leg may be activated which result in more blood
being pumped so that the person can escape from a dangerous situation such a
fire or from the scene of a bomb blast. These actions take place due to
stimulus sent from the brain which activates the leg muscles. Simulation of
such an action requires a lot of sophisticated hardware and software. This is
the area where robotics and artificial
intelligence play their role. We can recognize a person by sight, sound
etc. This is done by images sent by the optic and olfactory nerves to the
brain. A robot on the other hand uses a pair of cameras in place of the eyes
and software coupled with moving parts like an artificial limb.
Areas of application
1.
Chess playing
Chess is a game which has been using artificial intelligence to produce
better systems in game playing. Computer is basically an electronic device
which accepts instructions from the user and works on data to produce outputs.
In traditional computing databases are used to store chunks of data which
ultimately give useful information. In AI, knowledge bases are used, which can
store information through inferences and dialogues with the user and also
update themselves. Chess is a game where moves and positions are of great
importance. When a human chess player is in action, he will make the moves
based on previous knowledge acquired or by intuition. Where as in computer
simulated games, thousands of moves are calculated by the computer using brute
force method where the most appropriate move is chosen. When a human plays
chess, it is based on expertise and skills, where as in computer simulated
chess environment, the computer plays based on calculations. For instance the
most famous of man versus computer chess matches were played between Deep Blue,
developed by IBM in 1997 and grandmaster Garry Kasparov. The computer won the
series 2-1, with three matches being drawn. This spawned a great deal of
interest in this area and other machines followed. Deep Blue, with its
capability of evaluating 200 million positions per second, was the strongest
computer that ever faced a world chess champion. Today, in computer chess
research and matches of world class players against computers, the focus of
play has often shifted to software controlled chess programs, rather than using
dedicated chess hardware. Modern chess programs such as Rybka, Deep Fritz or
Deep Junior are more efficient than the programs during Deep Blue's era.
2.
Speech Recognition
In the 1990s, computer speech recognition
reached a practical level for limited purposes. United Airlines has replaced
its keyboard tree for flight information by a system using speech recognition
of flight numbers and city names during this time which proved very convenient.
Speech Recognition is an area where intense research is going on. During
earlier days of computing, speech recognition was considered a stiff challenge.
Now with advent of new hardware and software this process has been simplified.
Even the commonly used MS-OFFICE suite has built-in features that support
speech recognition. The software which converts speech to text essentially
relies on the repository which stores commonly used words and its
pronunciation. This process is intricate in the sense that the accent may vary
from person to person. Hence before the software can be used, it must be
trained with the user's way of talking. Once this is done, the user can talk on
a microphone connected to the computer which translates his words into text. In
fact this software can function as an assistant when the user wants to dictate
some text. Dragon software has emerged as a complete solution in this area.
Dragon 'Naturally Speaking' software from 'Nuance' is used by millions of
people. It can be used in office, at home, at school, on road, or even in the
operating room. It allows the user to get more done faster by voice. With
Dragon, people can write documents and emails, search the Web, and even control
their PC entirely by voice, saving time and boosting productivity. In their
latest review, the editors of PC Magazine noted: "Dragon retains its lead
in the speech recognition field, with surprising accuracy in dictation, even
with little or no training."
3.
Understanding Natural Language
Natural language understanding is an area
where lot of ambiguity still exists. This involves recognizing the whole text
and interpreting its meaning the computer has to be provided with an
understanding of the domain the text is about, and this is presently possible
only for very limited domains. Natural language processing (NLP) is an area of
computational linguistics concerned with the processing of naturally occurring
(human) language by computer. Natural-language-generation systems convert
information from computer databases into normal-sounding human language.
Natural-language-understanding systems convert samples of human language into
more formal representations that are easier for computer programs to
manipulate. Natural language processing by computers is still in its infancy and
a lot of work remains to be done.
4.
Computer Vision
The world is composed of three-dimensional
objects, but the inputs to the human eye and computers' TV cameras are two
dimensional. Some useful programs can work solely in two dimensions. A full
computer vision requires partial three-dimensional information that is not just
a set of two-dimensional views. At present there are only limited ways of
representing three-dimensional information directly, and they are not as good
as what human eye employs. In case of robots, cameras convert images into
digital format, which are then processed.
5.
Expert Systems
One of the largest areas of applications of
artificial intelligence is in expert systems, or knowledge based systems as
they are often known. This area has been fairly well developed and has proved
useful for real time applications. This type of system seeks to exploit the specialized
skills or information held by of a group of people on specific areas. It can be
thought of as a computerized consulting service. It can also be called an
information guidance system. Such systems are used for medical diagnosis or as
educational aids. The skills and knowledge of an expert is simulated in a computerized
environment to provide the effective solutions to a problem. The areas where
expert systems are used range from disaster warning systems to medical
diagnostics. The earliest expert system was MYCIN which was used for treating
blood related diseases as early as 1974. When creating an expert system, a
'knowledge engineer' interviews experts in a certain domain and tries to embody
their knowledge in a computer program for carrying out some tasks.
6.
Heuristics classification
This is an area where information and
knowledge from various sources are classified and focused to provide results in
a particular area. For example in the modern world economic crisis is rampant.
One of the major reasons why several banks in U.S have collapsed is due to
excessive credit payments. Expert systems have been used in a limited way to
arrive at a consensus whether a particular person may be issued a credit card
or not. His traits and habits are to be studied and recorded so that it may be
concluded whether he is capable of repayment. Expert systems using such
heuristics in banking areas could have provided a solution to this global
crisis. Other areas include decision support systems, public information
systems etc.
Conclusion
On the whole it can be concluded that Artificial
Intelligence applications will play a decisive role in providing real time
solutions to various problems humans face. A humane touch along with a
technological interface will play a major role in shaping the future.
