Information Technology
Application of the PROSPECTOR system to geological exploration problems
A practical criterion for the success of a knowledge-based problem-solving system is its usefulness as a tool to those working in its specialized domain of expertise. This paper describes an evaluation and several applications of a knowledge-based system, the PROSPECTOR consultant for mineral exploration. PROSPECTOR is a rule-based judgmental reasoning system that evaluates the mineral potential of a site or region with respect to inference network models of specific classes of ore deposits. Knowledge about a particular type of ore deposit is encoded in a computational model representing observable geological features and the relative significance thereof.In Hayes, J. E., Michie, D., and Pao, Y.-H. (Eds.), Machine Intelligence 10. Ellis Horwood.
Generalization as Search
"The purpose of this paper is to compare various approaches to generalization in terms of a single framework. Toward this end, generalization is cast as a search problem, and alternative methods for generalization are characterized in terms of the search strategies that they employ. This characterization uncovers similarities among approaches, and leads to a comparison of relative capabilities and computational complexities of alternative approaches. The characterization allows a precise comparison of systems that utilize different representations for learned generalizations."Artificial Intelligence, 18 (2), 203-26.
PROLOG: a language for implementing expert systems
We briefly describe the logic programming language PROLOG concentrating on those aspects of the language that make it suitable for implementing expert systems. We show how features of expert systems such as: (1) inference generated requests for data, (2) probabilistic reasoning, (3) explanation of behaviour can be easily programmed in PROLOG. We illustrate each of these features by showing how a fault finder expert could be programmed in PROLOG.In Hayes, J. E., Michie, D., and Pao, Y.-H. (Eds.), Machine Intelligence 10. Ellis Horwood.
Artificial Intelligence: Engineering, Science, or Slogan?
"This paper presents the view that artificial intelligence (AI) is primarily concerned with propositional languages for representing knowledge and with techniques for manipulating these representations. In this respect, AI is analogous to applied in a variety of other subject areas. Typically, AI research (or should be) more concerned with the general form and properties of representational languages and methods than it is with the context being described by these languages. Notable exceptions involve "commonsense" knowledge about the everyday would ( no other specialty claims this subject area as its own ), and metaknowledge (or knowledge about the properties itself). In these areas AI is concerned with content as well as form. We also observe that the technology that seems to underly peripheral sensory and motor activities (analogous to low-level animal or human vision and muscle control) seems to be quite different from the technology that seems to underly cognitive reasoning and problem solving. Some definitions of AI would include peripheral as well as cognitive processes; here we argue against including the peripheral processes." AI Magazine 3(1), spring, 1982.
A world-championship-level Othello program
Available for a fee. Manuscript available at Carnegie Mellon University https://kilthub.cmu.edu/articles/A_world-championship-level_Othello_program/6602903. Othello is a recent addition to the collection of games that have been examined within artificial intelligence. Advances have been rapid, yielding programs that have reached the level of world-championship play. This article describes the current champion Othello program, Iago. The work described here includes: (1) a task analysis of Othello; (2) the implemenation of a program based on this analysis and state-of-the-art AI gameplaying techniques; and (3) an evaluation of the program's performance through games played against other programs and comparisons with expert human play. Artificial Intelligence, 19, 279-320.