Introduction to AI & AI Principles (Semester 1) WEEK 2 Introduction to AI & AI Principles (Semester 1) WEEK 2 (2007/08) John Barnden Professor of Artificial Intelligence School of Computer Science University of Birmingham, UK

uDo You Have an Intelligent Pet? uWhat Would It Mean for an Alien to be Intelligent? uWhat AI Have You Encountered?

INTRODUCTION

Ways I Have Been Stupid uNot asking enough questions in lectures when a student! uSwitching the light off instead of leaving it on. uGetting into bed when I didn’t mean to. uMaking silly mistakes when nervous. uLeaving house keys indoors. uThinking it was Thursday when it was Wednesday. uDouble-booking. uChasing a mugger (fewer times than Jack Straw though). uNot noticing my theatre tickets were for a different day. uThinking other people were being stupid when it was I who had misunderstood something.

In What Ways Have You Been Stupid?

ANY OBSERVATIONS?

Stupidity and Intelligence uSo, we’re not intelligent creatures? /// uCould an ant/rat/dog/monkey be stupid in those ways? uDid those mistakes arise out of good reasons, actually? uThe necessity of stupidity. Stupidity in the context of intelligence. uEmotion and thought. (Huge but hot topic.) uWe can intelligently reflect on our stupidity! uAs well as being stupid about our intelligence!!

What is the Field of “Artificial Intelligence” ???? uNot an easy question, for many reasons, incl.: l What is “intelligence”???? [often asked] l What does “artificial” mean? [not so often asked]

What is “AI” ???? contd uBasically, AI (the field) is the study of how to create artificial entities that have features that we associate with intelligence, and cognition more generally, in humans and other living things, such as reasoning, planning, communicating in language, solving problems, seeing what’s around, moving around in the world, creating artworks, playing games, learning, emoting, being conscious, having society, etc.

Cautions 1 … uThe “artificial objects” are currently computers, robots, computer programs, etc., as we know them today, but could include radically different types of artefact in future … … uAnd given the possibility of synthetic biology, we might eventually grow our artefacts … and how different would that be from a woman just giving birth?

Cautions 2 uAnd who is that “associates” those features with intelligence? … In fact AI covers a lot of things most people would not have thought of as “intelligent” – e.g. seeing that there’s a pencil on a desk. (Hence my inclusion of “cognition in general”.)

Cautions 3 uMany AI researchers don’t themselves produce or directly study programs, computers, robots, etc., but instead create: underlying computational principles or frameworks, mathematical theory, etc.

Why Do We Do AI? uAn “Engineering” Aim uA “Psychological” Aim uA “General/Philosophical” Aim

“Engineering” Aim uTo engineer, or provide computational principles and methods for engineering, / useful artefacts that are arguably intelligent (in the broad sense above), without necessarily having any mechanistic similarity to human or animal minds/brains. uThe usefulness may be in an industrial domain or an everyday, practical domain, but may also be in other domains such as art or mathematical theorem proving.

“Psychological” Aim uTo devise computational principles, computationally- detailed theories, or running computational systems that provide a basis for possible testable accounts of cognition in human or animal minds/brains. In short, contributing computationally to questions such as, how does the human mind work? uBut why not leave that to Psychologists? Answer: they don’t know AS much about computation. Also, thinking “outside the biological box” is liberating.

“General/Philosophical” Aim uTo devise computational principles, computationally- detailed theories, or running computational systems that serve as or suggest possible accounts of cognition in general, whether it be in human-made artefacts, in naturally-occurring organisms, or in beings yet to be discovered, or that illuminate philosophical issues such as the nature of mind, thought, intelligence, consciousness, perception, language, representation, learning, rationality, society, etc.

Mixing of Aims u The three aims are often inextricably combined in a given piece of research. l An individual researcher may subscribe to more than one of the aims. l Developments in pursuit of any one of the aims could happen to inspire advances towards one of the others. l Endeavours that have any one of the aims can deliberately look for inspiration from research that has one of the other aims.

Why Am I (Puzzled Student) Doing AI?? i.e., “Eh? I?” uIt is a particularly fascinating, fun, liberating, inspiring, challenging, breathtaking, … in short, sexy aspect of CS. uAI technology (software, hardware) is creeping more and more into practical applications. / uIt’s a relatively people-orientated side of CS, and interacts/overlaps with many other disciplines such as Psychology. uGood basis for interesting final-year projects. uIt involves many general CS issues, and there are no clear boundaries anyway.

WHAT DOES “ARTIFICIAL” MEAN?? (exercise for you by next Tuesday)

Some Actual or Emerging Applications uLearning, planning & communication in computer games. uDiagnosis, in many areas including medical. uIntelligent conversational agents (incl. chatbots, helpful avatars on company sites, ICAs fronting travel services). uEmotive ICAs. uMilitary apps, incl. battle planning, target identification. uAircraft/spacecraft/planet-craft control & action planning. [See Callan book]

Some Example Applications, contd. 1 uStock market prediction. uFraud-detection: credit cards, phone usage. uData mining for marketing purposes. uText summarization and information-extraction. uArtistic creativity (music, paintings, …). uBuilding design. uIntelligent transport systems, utility networks, etc.

Some Example Applications, contd. 2 uIntelligent personalized web-search agents. uPolicing and national security. uMachine translation (of language). uSemantic web.