AI Illuminated (First chapter) – Coppin Book

Some notes on the above book:

1.1 – Introduction
 To be able to understand AI, it is useful to have an understanding of the background of primarily philosophy, linguistics, psycology and biology.

AI – Ability to deal with new situations
- Ability to solve problems
- To answer questions
- To devise plans

1.2 – What is Artificial Intelligence
Approximate definition:
“AI is the study of sysmem that act in a way that to and observer would appear to be intelligent.”
Another Definition:
“AI involves using methods based on the intelligent behaviour of humans and other animals to solve complex problems”(this definition takes into account of more prosaic problems…)

There are two different types of AI supposedly:
Strong AI:
Followers belive that giving a computer program enough processing power and providing it with enough intelligence it will think and is conscious in the same way that a human is conscious.
Weak AI:
Is the view that intelligent behaviour can be modelled and used by computers to solve complex proglems. This argues that a computer behaves intelligently does not prove that it is actually intelligent in the way that a human is.

1.3 – Strong Methods and Weak Methods
There are also two different methods:
Weak Methods:
Weak methods in AI use systems such as logic, automated reasoning, and other general structures that can be applied to a wide range of problems that doesnt always have to have any real knowledge about the problem that maybe being faced.
Strong Methods:
Strong method problem solving depends on a systems given a great deal of knowledge about its world and the problems that it might encounter.

1.4 – From Aristotle to Babbage
Aristotle, a philosopher from ancient Greece, who lived from 384 to 322 B.C. and who studied under Plato during that time. The wrintings of Aristotle have formed the basis for a great deal of our modern scientific thinking.
He invented the idea of the syllogism, which he defined as follows:
“A discourse in which certain things having being stated, something else follows of necessity from their being so.”

Charles Babbage invented the worlds first computer-the analytic engine, he never managed to build it. However, his designs were used to build a working model although it was loosely based on Babbages model.

1.5 – Alan Turing
One of the great figures in AI is Alan Turing. He famously worked in Bletchley Park, helping to solve German codes. He released the first paper written on this subject – Computering Machinery & Intelligence.

In 1956, the term Artificial Intelligence was first used by John McCarthy at a conference in Dartmouth College, in Hanover, New Hampshire.

1.6 – The 1960’s
In the most recent decades, the study of AI has flourished. Areas of particular importance include the following:
- Machine Learning
- Multi-Agent Systems
- Artificial Life
- Computer Vision
- Planning
- Playing Games (Chess in particular)

1.7 – Philosophy
In the 17th century, the great philosopher René Descartes was a strong believer in Dualism, the idea that the universe consists of two entirely seperate things: mind and matter. He believed that dualism did not extend to animals.
Descarte’s view was that the mind (or soul) was entirely separate from the physical body and not constrained by it in any way.

1.8 – Linguistics
The study of the human language has a vital role to play in AI. Noam Chomsky, proposed the theory of Syntactic Stuctures in the 50’s, this was a formal theory of the structure of human language. His theory also attempted to provide a structure for human knowledge, based on the knowledge of language.

1.9 – Human Psychology and Biology
Ai is related to Cognitive psychology, which is based on the idea that the human brain uses knowledge or information that is capable of processing in order to solve problems, make decisions, draw conclusions and carry out other intelligent acts.
This form of psychology was in contrast to behaviourism, which prevailed for much of the first half of the 20th century. Behaviourism relates behaviour directly to stimuli, without taking into account knowledge or information that might be contained in the brain. This is the kind of psychology that Pavlov was demonstrating with dogs.

1.10 – AI programming Languages
General programming languages such as C++ and Java are often used because these are the languages with which most computer scientists have experience. There also exists to programming laguages which are useful for AI projects, these are PROLOG and LISP.

PROLOG (PROgramming in LOGic):
- Is a language designed to enable programmers to build a database of facts and rules.

LISP (LISt Programming):
- Resembles C++ and PAscal
- Name suggests that it handles lists of data.