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                  What's New with Artificial Intelligence?                  
                                                                            
                         (c) 1991 Thinking Software                         
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	    Is there a Personal Robot lurking in your future?

	    Very likely, and when you finally buy him (or her),
       it will be Artificial Intelligence running on the Robot's onboard
       computer that will get your car shined perfectly and effortlessly.

	    Or your whole house cleaned, the lawn mowed, and the laundry
       washed and ironed! While you are out for the day!

            Artificial Intelligence is computer software that allows
       a computer (or Robot) to perform tasks we would consider intelligent
       if done by a person.  These tasks include giving expert advice,
       understanding natural language, speaking intelligently and
       recognizing complex patterns such as handwriting.  The three
       most important types of AI Programs today are Expert Systems,
       Natural Language Programs and Neural Networks.

       This exciting software is moving in several new directions
       in the 1990's:

       * Embedded Artificial Intelligence  -  A.I. within
	 otherwise conventional database software.

       * Robotics - insect like electronic creatures with simple
	 intelligence are being created at the MIT Robotics Lab.

       * Intelligent Vision - Robot Eyes that can identify various
	 components on an assembly line, for example.

       * CASE - Computer Aided Software Engineering - using software
	 to write new software.

       * CAI - Computer Aided Instruction, tutorial software that
	 automatically adjusts to your level of knowledge.

	   There is substantial interest in moving A.I. out of the
       factory and lab, and into the Office and home.  Work Group Software
       and complex Electronic Mail and Filing Systems are already starting
       to reflect this trend and become more intelligent.

	   A.I. Visionaries are talking about "Agents", very
       intelligent PC Based programs that can accept and carry out a long
       series of complex instructions, and report back to you when all
       tasks are completed.

	   Some software designers are even experimenting with primitive but
       fascinating forms of Artificial Life (software that mimics growth and
       reproduction), and a new field called Virtual Reality.

	   Virtual Reality Software, along with special goggles and gloves,
       allows you to seemingly enter an artificial world that exists only
       within the computer, and even move and touch objects that appear in
       the 3-D view provided by the goggles.

	   The new generation of super high-speed 486 PC's now becoming
       available from IBM, Compaq, and other compatible builders have become
       the platform of choice for the development of A.I. Software. Could
       the 586 PC running at 100 Megahertz be already in the wings?



                             EXPERT  SYSTEMS
 
            An Expert System is computer software that can solve real
       world problems requiring logic, decision making and knowledge
       processing.  Expert Systems can also categorize, consult, analyze,
       and diagnose.  These software tools are useful in areas that
       formerly required a human expert. Expert Systems use deductive
       reasoning to solve problems that are often unstructured, and
       would be impossible to approach with conventional procedural
       computer techniques.

	   You might think that when consulting an Expert System, you ask
	the Expert System a question, and receive a solution.   Actually,
	its the other way round. The vast majority of Expert Systems in use
	today ask YOU the questions, and arrive at a solution based on your
	responses - and the IF/THEN rules in their knowledgebase.

	   Here's a extremely simplified example:

       EXPERT QUESTION 1: Do you have a bad cough?
       YOUR ANSWER: Yes.

       EXPERT QUESTION 2: Do you smoke?
       YOUR ANSWER: No.

       EXPERT SOLUTION: You have a cold.

	   If you had answered Yes to the second question, the
       Expert Solution would be: You have smoker's cough.

       Naturally, an Expert System that you could question
       would be preferable, but this has been very difficult
       to program with current technology, because of the extreme
       difficulty of programming a computer to extract MEANING
       from a sentence or question. However, there is little doubt
       that this will eventually be accomplished, most likely through
       Knowledge Frames.

	   One large Knowledge Frame project manager likens
       building Knowledge Frames on a computer to teaching the
       Encyclopedia to a small child.  He has also called the
       process "teaching by brain surgery", as every single
       fact, relationship and idea must be manually typed into
       the computer in just the right way.  It is hoped that building
       millions of linked Knowledge Frames will result in a computer
       with enough "common sense" to understand and respond to questions.


                     THE DOMAIN OF THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
 
            An Expert System Shell is an Expert System minus its
       knowledgebase and domain.  It is an Expert System ready to be
       taught the rules of knowledge in a particular field.  An
       "Expert System Ready to Consult" is an Expert System that has
       been given knowledge rules for a specific domain or subject,
       such as Medical Diagnosis, Car Repair or virtually any organized
       body of knowledge.

	      Some of the most famous Expert Systems can be found
       in the area of Medical Diagnoses and Computer Configuaration,
       and surpass human experts in their specific areas of expertise.
       In one specific area of expertise - playing chess - a domain
       specific computer called Deep Thought has won against GrandMaster
       human players, and most experts believe that Deep Thought will
       eventually become the world chess champion, perhaps within five
       years.
 
 
                           NATURAL LANGUAGE
 
       Natural Language Software is the branch of AI that focuses on
  getting computers to understand spoken or typed english. English has proven
  itself as the most useful tool for people communicating with people.
  It is now starting to emerge as a viable alternative for people
  communicating with computers. Someday, desktop PC's will routinely respond
  to our spoken requests with answers in perfectly spoken English - or any
  other language!

  There is now software that can speak any file or text screen on your PC,
  (Monlogue, from First Byte), and software that can type your slowly spoken
  words (Dragon Dictate, $9000.00). There is also software to automatically
  translate from one language to another.  One A.I. goal is to provide
  automatic real-time language translation as you speak during a
  Trans-Atlantic phone conversation. The SoundBytes Toolkit
  (Thinking Software, $59.95) allows programmers to add Speech to any
  PC Program. The PC Therapist (Thinking Software, $29.95) is an advanced
  update of Eliza, the famous talking psychiatrist first developed
  at M.I.T.

       There is absolutely no doubt that Encylopedia sales will soon
  be replaced by Enclopedias on CD-ROM Disks, with powerful Natual
  Language software "front-ends" that can accept a school child's
  typed question, and turn it into a correct search-and-retrieval
  procedure to answer any question from the Encyclopedia.

       Can you imagine a child telling his computer to "Prepare
  a report on the History of Artifical Intelligence", or - more likely -
  on the Presidents of the United States?
 
			   NEURAL NETWORKS
 
 
      A Neural Network is a biological model of a human brain, simulated in
  the binary memory of your PC. It is made up of artificial Neurons,
  connected to each other by Axions.  Each Neuron can have many inputs,
  but only one output. As a Neuron gets energized by input, it fires, sending
  energy along axions to other nearbye Neurons.  If another Neuron receives
  enough energy it will also fire, propagating the excitation to others.

  There are hundreds or even thousands of such Neurons, arranged in layers,
  and all together they form a Neural Network, capable of learning from
  experience though a self correcting technique called back-propogation.
  Today, Neural Networks are the most exciting area in Artificial
  Intelligence, and these real operational computer models of the brain
  routinely perform outstanding feats of pattern recognition such as reading
  scribbled handwriting at high speed with incredible accuracy, learning to
  identify male versus female faces, and even learning to speak almost
  without human assistance.

  There is also a lot of excitement on Wall Street where high
  level programmers have created Neural Networks that can predict the
  Stock Market quickly enough to place buy and sell orders based on the
  Networks output.  A number of small companies have been formed around
  the idea of using Neural Networks to predict the result of horse races
  and other sporting events based on past history.

  Some claim that Neural Network Software will lead us to a new
  "Age of Artificial Intelligence". When the first Personal Robot
  goes on the market (for the price of...let's say...about the
  price of a Cadillac or Mercedes...at first...) will its brain
  be an Expert System, a Neural Network, or Natural Language
  Software, or perhaps some exotic high-tech combination of the
  three still to be invented?
 


