Expert System
A computer based systemUses AI techniques
Tries to be a substitute for a human expertthe expertise of several human experts is coded using a knowledge representation language (KRL)implications
Social
Legal
Ethical
Job loss
Training
Human knowledge
ethical / moral
moral and ethical issues
Ethics is about having a sense of right or wrong. This is not the same as breaking the law.For example, it is not ilegal to test drugs on animals, but many people think it is unethicalwould it be ethical to use medical expert systems to diagnose human illness if it was cheaper than employing medical consultants?medical implications
legal
Legal means relating to laws created by government. Some laws mean that someone may be liable or responsible for something that goes wrong.
Suppose an investor gets advice form an expert system and then looses all the money since it turn out to be a bad investment. Who is to blame?The programmer who wrote the expert system softwareThe human financial consutant whose expertise was coded into the expert systemThe customer who relied on the expert systemThe financial advce company who let customers use expert systemsA human expert who has relied on the AI expert system to help produce the adviceIt might help to think about to what extent a human advisor is when the advice leads to unexpected problemssocial
Social has to do with how people are affected in their personal life, at work, study. With their family or community.Expert systems might be used in place of a human expert. Perhaps this may mean less jobs for some human experts.
applications
oil exploration
Where to drill?
A lot of money to be made from getting a good wellexploration costs are very high, expensive equipment, dangerousUse data from geological surveys to identify underground features that produce the formations likely to have oildepositsfaultingerosioncompression
financial
Financial Management
Debtincome investmentinsuranceAccountngTaxationLegal issues for finance
medical
medical
consultationdiagnosis of conditionsdescribe symptomsfamous systemsMYCIN
disadvantages
inflexibility
no learning
technical support
no common sense
narrow domain
advantages
Compared to human experts, artificial expert systems can have several advantagesOf course there can de disadvantages, check out the implicationsconsistencylasting expertiselow operating costslow duplication costsoffers a range of possible solutions (varying chances of success)asstis human experts rather than complete substituteportability
portability
an expert system is essentially software that can be installed in a system anywherethe system can be put on-line making it universally available
low error, consistent
chance of error
don't forget or get tired
does not forget to ask a question
results will be consistent (the same) no matter how many times or places the system is used, unlike humans who may react to stress or tiredness
combined source
combined sources
putting together several sources is better than one because of, consensus, non bias, more than one idea
allows a very large collection of knowledge available from one expert system
cost effectiveness
cost effectiveness
human consultants are very well paid, it is important work
also research and higher education are expensive preparation for humans
expert systems have high set up costs but are cheaper to copy and run
No salary, but there are support costs
availability and permanence
availability of expertise
available 24/7
network the expert systems, allow sharing to enable multi-user participation
copy the hardware and software
humans may leave or quit, taking their expertise away, an expert system can be maintained indefinitely and replicated as neccessary
expert system shell
components
working memory
knowledge base
inference engine
user interface
justification / explanation
justification
The expertise of a specialist can be made more useful if the specialist can explain of justify the conclusions, (inability to explain is equally a limiting factor)Justification is presented to the user by the user interfaceThere are two forms.The expert system can give an justification of how conculsions were reached at the end of the consultation (How justification: how did you get to that conclusion))The expert system can explain why it needs particular information form the user during the consultation (Why justification: why do you need to ask me that question)purpose
consultation
explanation
knowledge representation
personnel
knowledge engineer
knowledge engineer
a computer software specialist
extracts knowledge from domain experts and other sources this is in fact the analysis stage of software development
converts extracted knowledge into a format suitable for coding in a knowledge representation language
prepares knowledge as facts and rules that reflect the relationship between facts the coded knowledge is stored in the knowledge base, probably as experct system shell would be used to speed up production
works with the domain expert again to test the expert system
domain expert
domain expert
Someone who knows a lot of facts and information
Spent a long time learning and researching
legal expert, medical consultant
A General Practitioner (GP) doctor has studies a wide range of medical knowledge but may not be an expert in any. A medical consultant has studied one smalll area of medical knowledge in very great depth.
On the TV show Mastermind, each contestant answers one round of questions on general knowledge and one round on a specialist topic of their own choosing
