Introduction to Information

Technology
2nd Edition
Turban, Rainer & Potter
© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 12:
Intelligent Systems in Business

Prepared by:
Roberta M. Roth, Ph.D.
University of Northern Iowa

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 Chapter Preview
In this chapter, we will study:
What is meant by artificial
intelligence
How expert systems are developed
and how they perform
How AI has been applied to other
arenas, such as natural language
processing and neural computing
The concept and usefulness of
intelligent agents
Ethical and legal issues posed by AI
Introduction to Information Technology, 2nd Edition
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Turban, Rainer & Potter
© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 ‘Intelligent’ Systems?
 Conventional computer systems
do not possess ‘intelligence.’ They
simply follow step-by-step
instructions to complete a task
 If a computer system had
‘intelligence,’ it would…
 Deal successfully with complex
situations
 Learn from experience
 Adapt to new situations quickly

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 Why do we want ‘Intelligent’
Systems?
 To capture and represent human
knowledge permanently
 To perform tasks requiring
intelligence repetitively,
consistently, and capably
 To document the performance of a
task
 To conveniently disseminate
knowledge and expertise to others

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 Artificial Intelligence
 Branch of computer science that
 Studies human intelligent behavior
 Attempts to replicate that human
intelligent behavior in a computer
system
 Employs symbolic processing of
knowledge and heuristics
 Does not really enable computers
to ‘think’
 Does enable creation of systems
with some human-like behaviors
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Applications of Artificial
 Expert Systems
Intelligence
 Intelligent
 Natural computer-assisted
language instruction
technology  Machine learning
 Speech  Handwriting
understanding recognition
 Robotics  Intelligent agents
 Computer vision

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Turban, Rainer & Potter
© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 What is an Expert System?
 Computer system that solves a
problem as successfully as a
human expert
 Incorporates human expertise
 Acquires facts about the problem
 Applies its stored knowledge and
expertise to the problem facts to
derive a solution
 Makes recommendations
 Can explain its reasoning and logic
 Successful commercial application
of AI
Introduction to Information Technology, 2nd Edition
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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 Key Expert System Terms
 Knowledge acquisition – the process
of obtaining knowledge and expertise
from human experts
 Knowledge representation – the
method used to represent human
knowledge and expertise in the
computer system
 Knowledge inferencing – the process
of applying stored expertise to the facts
about the problem to draw conclusions
 Knowledge transfer and use – the
communication of the problem solution
and its justification to the system user
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 More Expert System Terms
 Knowledge base – stored facts and methods
of how to solve a problem
 Heuristic – rule of thumb that can be applied
in a problem solution
 Inference engine – processing logic stored
in the system that correctly applies the stored
knowledge to the problem to develop a
solution
 Domain expert – one or more humans who
have achieved a high level of expertise in
solving a problem
 Knowledge engineer – person who
develops expert systems
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 How is an Expert System
Created?
 Knowledge engineer works with domain
expert to extract domain knowledge
 Knowledge engineer encodes domain
knowledge in knowledge base using
appropriate knowledge representation
 Knowledge engineer tests system on
sample problems and refines system
knowledge with help from domain
engineer
 Refinement continues until system is
solving problems with human expert
capability
Introduction to Information Technology, 2nd Edition
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 How Does an Expert System
Perform?
 System asks user a series of questions
to gather facts about the problem
 System uses inference engine to form
conclusions from the facts, including a
measure of certainty about the
conclusions
 System displays its recommendation or
solution to the problem
 If asked, the system can display its
reasoning and logic as to how it arrived
at the conclusion

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 Expert System Structure

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 More on Expert Systems
 Strengths  Limitations
 Rapid, consistent  Can only solve
problem solutions problems in a
narrow domain
 Ability to justify
 Can only be
and explain applied to certain
reasoning problem types
 Easy to replicate  Cannot learn from
and distribute to its experience
non-expert users  Hard to acquire
knowledge from
human expert
Introduction to Information Technology, 2nd Edition
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Other Intelligent Systems
 Natural Language Processing
 The ability to communicate with a
computer in your natural language
• Voice (speech) recognition and speech
understanding – system recognizes
spoken words and understands their
meaning
• Voice synthesis – computer produces
natural language voice output that
sounds ‘human’

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Other Intelligent Systems
 Neural Computing
 A computer model that uses
architecture that mimics certain brain
functions
 Performs pattern recognition well
 Can analyse large data sets and
discover patterns where rules were
previously unknown
 Can ‘learn’ by analysing new cases
and updating itself
 Many potential business applications

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Other Intelligent Systems
 Case-Based Reasoning
 Uses solutions from similar problems
and adapts them to new problems
 Useful in solving very complex cases
 Fuzzy Logic
 Enables systems to effectively deal
with uncertainty
 Often use in combination with other
technologies to improve productivity

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Intelligent Agents
 Software agent that autonomously
performs tasks on behalf of a user
with certain goals or objectives
 Can tirelessly perform repetitive tasks
over a network
 Includes knowledge base and ability
to learn
 Can be static (on the client only) or
mobile (move throughout a network)
 Often used to facilitate search and
retrieval on the Internet and to assist
in e-commerce tasks
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 Virtual Reality
 Simulation of a physical
environment in a highly realistic
way
 Useful for communication and
learning
 Many potential business
applications, especially marketing

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Intelligent Systems Concerns
 Potential to use the power of
intelligent systems in unethical
ways
 Who will be accountable for
decisions made by intelligent
systems?
 Who ‘owns’ knowledge and
expertise? Can an expert be
‘forced’ to reveal his/her
expertise?

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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
 Chapter Summary
 Artificial intelligence has produced a
variety of approaches to simulating
some aspect of human behavior
 Expert systems have been most
successful in business applications
 Natural language processing capability
is improving
 Intelligent agents are very powerful
tools in many of today’s systems
 AI brings many ethical and legal
concerns
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© 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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