CSE 411
Artificial Intelligence
Topic - 1: Introduction
Topic Contents
❖ What Is AI?
❖ Foundations of AI
❖ History of AI
❖ Introduction to Prolog
What Is AI?
❑ AI (Artificial Intelligence) is a branch of
computer science concerned with the study and
creation of computer systems that exhibit some
form of intelligence:
▪ systems that learn new concepts and tasks,
▪ systems that can reason and draw useful conclusions
about the world around us,
▪ systems that can understand a natural language or
perceive and comprehend a visual scene,
and
▪ systems that perform other types of feats that require
human types of intelligence.
Few Definitions of AI
Systems that Systems that
think like humans think rationally
Systems that act Systems that act
like humans rationally
Foundations of AI
❑ Philosophy (428 B.C. – present)
❑ Can formal rules be used to draw valid conclusions?
❑ How does mental mind arise from a physical brain?
❑ Where does knowledge come from?
❑ How does knowledge lead to action?
❑ Mathematics (800 B.C. – present)
❑ How are the formal rules to draw valid conclusions?
❑ What can be computed?
❑ How do we reason with uncertain information?
❑ Algorithms
❑ Intractability
❑ NP-completeness
❑ probability
Foundations of AI
❑ Neuroscience (1861 – present)
❑ How do brain process information?
❑ Neurons
❑ Economics (1776 – present)
❑ How do we make decisions so as to maximize payoff?
❑ How should we do this when others may not go along?
❑ How should we do this when the payoff may be far in the
future?
❑ Decision theory ( probability theory + utility theory)
Foundations of AI
❑ Computer Engineering (1940 – present)
❑ How can we build an efficient computer?
❑ Cybernetics (1948 – present)
❑ How can artifacts operate under their own control?
❑ Psychology (1879 – present)
❑ How do human and animals think and act?
❑ Linguistics (1957 – present)
❑ How do languages relate to thought?
History of AI
• The gestation of AI (1943 – 1955)
• The birth of AI (1956)
• Early enthusiasm, great expectations (1952 – 1969)
• A dose of reality (1966 – 1973)
• Genetic algorithm
• Knowledge base systems (1969 – 1979)
• AI becomes an industry (1980 – present)
• The return of neural network (1986 – present)
• AI becomes a science (1987 – present)
The State of the Art
❑ Autonomous planning and scheduling
❑ Game playing
❑ Autonomous control
❑ Medical diagnosis
❑ Logistic planning
❑ Robotics
❑ Language understanding and problem solving
❑ etc.
Introduction to Prolog
• Prolog: Programming in Logic
• Prolog is a logic programming language.
• Programming in Prolog is accomplished by creating a data
base of facts and rules about objects, their properties,
and their relationships to other objects.
• Queries can be posed about the objects and valid
conclusions will be determined through a form of
inferencing control known as resolution.
Facts: sister(sarah, bill).
parent(ann, sam).
parent(joe, ann).
male(joe).
female(ann).
Introduction to Prolog
• Rules:
• Grandfather(X, Z) :- parent(X,Y), parent(Y,Z), male(X).
• For all X, Y, and Z:
• X is the grandfather of Z
• IF X is the parent of Y, and Y is the parent of Z and X is
a male