What is Artificial Intelligence?

byJohn McCarthy, Computer Science Department, Stanford University, November 12, 2007

 

Artificial Intelligence is “the scientific understanding of the mechanisms underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines.” It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is the science and engineering of making intelligent machines, especially intelligent computer programs. It is related to the similar task of using computers to understand human intelligence, but AI does not have to confine itself to methods that are biologically observable. Intelligence is the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that studies the computational requirements for tasks such as perception, reasoning, and learning, and develops systems to perform those tasks. AI is a diverse field whose researchers address a wide range of problems, use a variety of methods, and pursue a spectrum of scientific goals. For example, some researchers study the requirements for expert performance at specialized tasks, while others model commonsense processes; some researchers explain behaviors in terms of low-level processes, using models inspired by the computation of the brain, while others explain them in terms of higher-level psychological constructs such as plans and goals. Some researchers aim to advance understanding of human cognition, some to understand the requirements for intelligence in general (whether in humans or machines), and some to develop artifacts such as intelligent devices, autonomous agents, and systems that cooperate with people to amplify human abilities.

AI is a young field–even its name, “artificial intelligence,” was only coined in 1956. One of the challenges for AI has been to determine which tasks to study–what constitutes an “AI question”–and how to evaluate progress. Much early AI research focused on tasks commonly thought to require high intelligence in people, such as playing high-quality chess. Skeptics viewed this as an impossible assignment, but AI made rapid progress. By the 1960’s, programs were capable of tournament play. In 1997, in a landmark match, the chess system Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov, the world’s human chess champion for the previous twelve years. At the same time, however, AI research was illuminating the enormous difficulty of commonsense tasks that people take for granted, such as understanding stories or conversations. Developing programs that can deal at a human level with rich everyday reasoning remains a fundamental research challenge.

In the logicist approach to knowledge representation and reasoning, information is encoded as assertions in a logic, and the system draws conclusions by deduction from those assertions. Other research studies non-deductive forms of reasoning, such as reasoning by analogy and abductive inference–the process of inferring the best explanation for a set of facts. Abductive inference does not guarantee sound conclusions, but is enormously useful for tasks such as medical diagnosis, in which a reasoner must hypothesize causes for a set of symptoms.

Capturing the knowledge needed by AI systems has proven to be a challenging task. The knowledge in rule-based expert systems, for example, is represented in the form of rules listing conditions to check for, and conclusions to be drawn if those conditions are satisfied. For example, a rule might state that IF certain conditions hold (e.g., the patient has certain symptoms), THEN certain conclusions should be drawn (e.g., that the patient has a particular condition or disease). A natural way to generate these rules is to interview experts. Unfortunately, the experts may not be able to adequately explain their decisions in a rule-based way, resulting in a “knowledge-acquisition bottleneck” impeding system development.

In its short existence, AI has increased understanding of the nature of intelligence and provided an impressive array of applications in a wide range of areas. It has sharpened understanding of human reasoning, and of the nature of intelligence in general. At the same time, it has revealed the complexity of modeling human reasoning, providing new areas and rich challenges for the future.

 

 

3. Look through the text and translate the following word combinations:

A rule-based way; a fundamental research challenge; a landmark match; abductive inference; to confine itself to methods; computational requirements; higher-level psychological constructs; to pursue a spectrum of scientific goals; human cognition; commonsense processes; to develop artifacts; unfortunately; human reasoning.

 

4. Arrange the following words in pairs of synonyms:

in question with regard to

in effect to take steps

despite under consideration

with reference to more over

to take measures yet

furthermore in spite of

due to to meet requirements

so far the latter

to take into consideration in fact

as to to bring about

to meet demands to take into account

the former owing to

to cause as for

 

5. Try to explain what artificial intelligence is.

6. Compose questions which answers could be the plan to the previous text.

7. Study the following:

Составление реферата

Реферирование или составление реферата (лат. refere – докладывать, сообщать) - это краткое изложение оригинала – первоисточника.

Реферирование представляет собой интеллектуальный творческий процесс, включающий осмысление исходного текста, аналитико-синтетическое преобразование информации: описание текста, целевое извлечение наиболее важной информации, ее перераспределение и создание нового текста.

Объем реферата определяется степенью важности реферируемого материала (средний объем реферата не превышает 2000 печатных знаков).

Реферат составляется по определенной схеме:

1) Вводная часть (выходные данные, перевод названия, формулировка темы).

2) Содержание работы (собственно реферативная часть), включающая изложение основных положений текса – первоисточника. Нельзя вносить какие-либо изменения или дополнения по существу реферируемой работы; нельзя также излагать собственную точку зрения или критические замечания, вступать в полемику с автором.

3) Заключительная часть (краткий комментарий, отношение к проблемам, затронутым в первоисточнике и к позиции автора по этим вопросам).

Начало реферата не должно повторять заглавие работы. Не следует прибегать к неясным формулировкам, а также различного рода повторениям. Текст реферата следует делить на абзацы.

При составлении реферата используется академический стиль письма. В реферируемой части могут быть фразы типа: «Автор считает…; автор полагает…, автор утверждает…»; «По мнению автора…»; «С точки зрения автора…»; «Как утверждает автор…»; «Целью данной статьи является…» и др. Для обобщения информации и конденсации текста рекомендуется использовать безличные конструкции типа: «дается определение…; привлекается внимание к…; описывается…; указывается…; подчеркивается…; подробно излагается…и т. п.».

 

8. Study the example of a resume in Russian:

Р е ф е р а т

New Energy from Old Sources

(Новые ресурсы энергии из старых источников)

Automobile Engineer, vol. 82, № 5, 1990, New York

Статья посвящена важной проблеме поиска путей получения энергии. Вследствие того, что залежи полезных ископаемых, являющихся в настоящее время основным источником энергии, истощаются, необходимо разрабатывать способы получения энергии из других источников. В качестве таковых автор предлагает использовать тепловую энергию солнца, ветер, приливные течения и подземные запасы пара.

В статье приводятся данные о возможности отопления жилых домов за счет солнечного тепла и снабжения электроэнергией небольших поселков от ветряных мельниц.

Упомянутые в статье источники смогут дать в будущем неограниченные возможности получения энергии.

 

9. Condense the information in each paragraph of the texts and write down the resume into Russian using the academic style:

HART-коммуникация

Рон Хельсон

Большинство полевых интеллектуальных устройств, установленных на заводах пользователей, поддерживают протокол обмена данными HART. Во всем мире установлено более 20 миллионов HART-совместимых устройств – больше, чем с каким-либо иным протоколом обмена данными. Ни одна другая технология полевой коммуникации не может заявить о таких результатах в предлагаемой номенклатуре доступных изделий или глобальной поддержке.

При надлежащем использовании, интеллектуальные возможности HART-устройств представляют собой ценный ресурс, с помощью которого можно заставить производство работать с максимальной отдачей. Возможности удаленной коммуникации и улучшенные характеристики этих устройств неоценимы при интеграции в системы управления производством, обеспечения безопасности и управления активами, предназначенными для «Интеллектуальной полевой коммуникации».

Хельсон, Р. HART-коммуникация. Повышайте производительность // Журнал интеллектуальных технологий Itech. – ООО «Проект», 2006. – №5. –C. 17-21. (С. 17).

Беспроводные интерфейсы

Ю. И. Иванов, В. Я. Югай

Иногда в средствах передачи данных применение традиционных проводных каналов связи по каким-либо причинам невозможно. В этих случаях необходима передача данных с применением беспроводных интерфейсов. Наряду с известными в этой области средствами, в настоящее время разрабатываются и предлагаются новые средства. Наиболее отработаны и стандартизованы беспроводные интерфейсы на основе оптических каналов связи и радиоканалов дециметрового и сантиметрового диапазонов.

Например, беспроводные Wi-Fi сети с использованием радиоканалов становятся все более популярными, число компьютерных периферийных устройств, поддерживающих эти интерфейсы, постоянно растет. Примерами реализации являются уже широко применяемый интерфейс «Bluetooth» и разрабатываемый в настоящее время UWB.

Иванов, Ю. И., Югай, В. Я. Интерфейсы средств автоматизации: Учеб. пособие. – Таганрог: Изд-во ТРТУ, 2005. – 252 c. (С. 45).

10. Study the following expressions to write a resume in English:

1) The author of the article is…

The article is written by…

2) The main idea of the article is…

The article is devoted to…

The article deals with…

The article touches upon…

The article presents some results which illustrate…

3) The purpose of the article is to give the reader some information to…

The purpose of the article is to determine / to compare…

The aim of the article is to provide the reader some data / material on…

4) The author starts by telling the readers about / that…

The author writes / stresses / thinks / points out that…

The article describes…

It is described (in short) – (кратко) описывается

…is / are introduced - вводится

…is / are given – дается / предлагается

…is / are provided for - обеспечивается

…is / are examined / investigated - исследуется

…is / are analyzed - анализируется

…is formulated - формулируется

Attention is drawn to… - обращается внимание на…

The data are given about… - приводятся данные о…

Attempts are made to analyze / to formulate… - делаются попытки…

According to the article…

Further the author reports / says that…

The article goes on to say that…

The need is stressed to employ – подчеркивается необходимость…

5) The first part deals with…

The second part is about…

The third part of the article includes the fact on…

6) In conclusion the article reads…

The author comes to the conclusion that…

Conclusions are made

Recommendations are given

7) I found the article interesting / important / of value for…

etc.

 

11. Study the text and the resume to it:

 

The End of a Monopoly Era

The GSM community is fond of talking about the benefits of competition. Competition between operators is said to be good. Competition between handset suppliers is said to be good. And competition between infrastructure suppliers is said to be good.

The irony of this is that throughout the first half of the 1990sGSM was itself a virtual wireless technology monopoly. Japan got a good Second Generation digital system up and running in the form of PDC. But it then found that a combination of the frequency band it operates in, and inflexible commercial acumen on the part of Japanese suppliers, meant that it could not succeed outside Japan. For its part, North America floundered between fledgling TDMA and IS-95 CDMA systems. Neither of them looked like succeeding in the United States, let alone anywhere further afield.

During the first five years of commercial deployment, GSM has enjoyed startling success. But it has only done so by virtue of being the only credible Second Generation technology on the market. That comfortable position has changed during 1996 with the position of the first serious challenges by alternative technologies. IS-95 CDMA has got off the ground and is alive and commercially kicking at last in the Far East and in the United States. IS-136 TDMA now looks like a far more serious option than IS-54. And Japan’s cordless PHS has clearly stolen the wireless limelight from GSM with its extraordinary take-up rates. All of a sudden, the world looks like a different place. GSM can no longer assume continued success on the same scale as before. It is no longer the only credible digital wireless solution.

This new reality necessitates a change of strategy on the part of the GSM community. The first thing which has to go is the negative mindset which some Europeans have had towards other digital technologies. True, some of the marketing of IS-95 has been highly derogatory about GS. But now that that seems to have peaked, there is no point pretending that the alternatives to GSM are not a lot more credible than they were a couple of years ago.

In any case it is childish to deny the hugely positive impact which the rise of these rivals has had on the GSM standard. But for the threat posed by IS-95, it is doubtful whether PCS-1900 operators in the US would have pushed so hard for an enhanced 3 kbits/s vocoder – an enhancement which other GSM operators world-wide are now able to benefit from. It is also doubtful whether the migration towards Phase 2+ would now be moving as fast as it is were it not for the GSM camp’s need to stay ahead of the game in the value added service, data and information stakes.

Faced with a new competitive landscape, the GSM community also needs to be more thorough in its marketing. The IS-95 camp has been pushing themselves as much – if it not more – as wireless local loop suppliers. The GSM community, by contrast, has done very little to position itself for wireless local loop.

The evolution of regulatory and standardization policy for GSM has become a little less Euro-centric but it is still too wrapped up in the blue and yellow of the European Union. The American Way has definitely been a positive influence in the last couple of years. The doors should be opened still wider. Asia’s GSM operators are also the key to GSM future. Regrettably, the only Asian countries with sufficiently powerful and outward looking telecoms policy bodies are Japan and Korea, both of which are outside the GSM camp.

1997 opens a new chapter – a Phase Two so to speak –in GSM’s development. Europe’s technology has done fantastically well without any real rivals. Now it must do just as well in the face of real competition.

Patrick Donegan GSM World Focus 1997, p.7

Resume

Donegan P. The End of a Monopoly Era. GSM World Focus, 1997, p.7.

 

The End of a Monopoly Era

The aim of the article is to show the reader that real competition in the GSM field is now a reality and should be faced both by reducers and operators.

The research method used in the article is description.

Recognizing that in the first half of the 1990’s GSM was a virtual wireless technology monopoly the author admits that nowadays that situation has changed dramatically due to the appearance of alternative technologies such as IS-95 CDMA, IS-136 TDMA, PHS.

This new reality leads to change of strategy in the GSM community. Measures should be taken to let some Europeans’ negative mindset towards other digital technologies go and to become more thorough in marketing; the doors should be opened for America’s and Asia’s GSM operators.

The article describes the period of GSM’s development beginning with the first half of the 1990’s and ending with 1997 which was mainly a Europe-centric one.

The author’s conclusion is that GSM’s development has entered a new chapter, i.e. the phase of competition. And it’s up to GSM’s technology to do as well in the face of real competition as it did without any real rivals.

 

12. Condense the information in each paragraph of the text and try to write down the resume into English:

Artificial Intelligence

One of the main problems of cybernetics is known to be creation of artificial intelligence. It is a scientific trend including mathematics, linguistics, psychology, engineering, etc. An artificial intelligence is considered to be a machine intelligence, dealing with the application of a computer which, in operation, is like a human intelligence.

To make an artificial intelligence fully similar to human intelligence is impossible because the human brain is a very complex system, to say nothing of the fact that a machine cannot have human emotions. Being often called a thinking machine, in reality a computer can’t think either logically, or figuratively. Therefore even the most complex machine cannot be compared to the human brain.

When speaking of the origin of the term ‘artificial intelligence’, it should be noted that it is the model of creative process in computers that gave birth to this term. But that doesn’t mean that computers possess it. The ‘intelligence’ is put into the computer by an expert who develops the program for solving some practical creative problems.

But nevertheless, scientists continue the research into the field of an artificial intelligence. Production becoming automated, management must become automated as well. That is why the question of an artificial intelligence acquires special importance for economic planning and management.

 

13. Translate the text. Entitle it. Condense the information in each paragraph of the text and try to write down the resume in English:

Text

Process control is extensively used in industry and enables mass production of continuous processes such as oil refining, paper manufacturing, chemicals, power plants and many other industries. Process control enables automation, with which a small staff of operating personnel can operate a complex process from a central control's room.

For example, heating up the temperature in a room is a process that has the specific, desired outcome to reach and maintain a defined temperature (e.g. 20°C), kept constant over time. Here, the temperature is the controlled variable. At the same time, it is the input variable since it is measured by a thermometer and used to decide whether to heat or not to heat. The desired temperature (20°C) is the set point. The state of the heater (e.g. the setting of the valve allowing hot water to flow through it) is called the manipulated variable since it is subject to control actions.

A commonly used control device called a programmable logic controller, or a PLC, is used to read a set of digital and analog inputs, apply a set of logic statements, and generate a set of analog and digital outputs. Using the example in the previous paragraph, the room temperature would be an input to the PLC. The logical statements would compare the set point to the input temperature and determine whether more or less heating was necessary to keep the temperature constant. A PLC output would then either open or close the hot water valve, an incremental amount, depending on whether more or less hot water was needed. Larger more complex systems can be controlled by a Distributed Control System (DCS) or SCADA system.

 

UNIT SEVEN

Texts: Robot programming and interfaces; Industrial Robot; Defining Parameters; End of Arm Tooling; Controlling Movement; Robotics; Функции АСУ ТП.

1. Memorize the words:

feeder – фидер; подающий механизм

mold – (литейная) форма; шаблон; делать по шаблону; формировать по образцу

cell – отсек, камера; элемент

entity – существо; вещь, объект

screw – винт, болт, гайка

hole – дыра, отверстие

host – множество; хозяин; содержатель

 

2. Read and translate the text: