Expert System

domain expertSomeone who knows a lot of facts and informationSpent a long time learning and researchinglegal expert, medical consultantA 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

knowledge engineera computer software specialistextracts knowledge from domain experts and other sources this is in fact the analysis stage of software developmentconverts extracted knowledge into a format suitable for coding in a knowledge representation languageprepares 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

justificationThe 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)

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 substitute

availability of expertiseavailable 24/7network the expert systems, allow sharing to enable multi-user participationcopy the hardware and softwarehumans may leave or quit, taking their expertise away, an expert system can be maintained indefinitely and replicated as neccessary

cost effectivenesshuman consultants are very well paid, it is important workalso research and higher education are expensive preparation for humansexpert systems have high set up costs but are cheaper to copy and runNo salary, but there are support costs

combined sourcesputting together several sources is better than one because of, consensus, non bias, more than one ideaallows a very large collection of knowledge available from one expert system

chance of errordon't forget or get tireddoes not forget to ask a questionresults 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

portabilityan expert system is essentially software that can be installed in a system anywherethe system can be put on-line making it universally available

medicalconsultationdiagnosis of conditionsdescribe symptomsfamous systemsMYCIN

Financial ManagementDebtincome investmentinsuranceAccountngTaxationLegal issues for finance

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

SocialLegalEthicalJob lossTrainingHuman knowledge

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.

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 problems

moral and ethical issuesEthics 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?