Artificial Intelligence

All AI computer programs are built on two basic elements: a knowledge base and an inferencing capability. (Inferencing means drawing conclusions based on logic and prior knowledge.) A knowledge base is made up of many discrete units of information—representing facts, concepts, theories, procedures, and relationships—all relevant to a particular task or aspect of the world. Programs are written to give the computer the ability to manipulate this information and to reason, make judgments, reach conclusions, and choose solutions to the problem at hand, such as guessing whether a series of credit-card transactions involves fraud or driving an automated rover across a rocky Martian landscape. Whereas conventional, deterministic software must follow a strictly logical series of steps to reach a conclusion, AI software uses the techniques of search and pattern matching; it may also, in some cases, modify its knowledge base or its own structure ("learn"). Pattern matching may still be algorithmic; that is, the computer must be told exactly where to look in its knowledge base and what constitutes a match. The computer searches its knowledge base for specific conditions or patterns that fit the criteria of the problem to be solved. Microchip technology has increased computational speed, allowing AI programs to quickly scan huge arrays of data. For example, computers can scan enough possible chess moves to provide a challenging opponent for even the best human players. Artificial intelligence has many other applications, including problem solving in mathematics and other fields, expert systems in medicine, natural language processing, robotics, and education.

The ability of some AI programs to solve problems based on facts rather than on a predetermined series of steps is what most closely resembles "thinking" and causes some in the AI field to argue that such devices are indeed intelligent.