Expert system
From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.
An expert system is a program running on a computer. Like a human expert, it knows a lot about a subject. People can ask the expert system a question. The expert system will then use a set of rules and give answers to the question. This method of automatic reasoning belongs to a field of computer science called artificial intelligence.
Different groups of people can have different kinds of access to an expert system. The people managing the network of computers have different needs than the office worker or secretary.
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[edit] Example
Let us take the scenario of a large office building. There are many computers in that building, and many different people work there. Some of the computers are office workstations, they are used to write electronic mail or business correspondence. Other computers are servers, they may hold the office documents, mail for the people working there, or the webpage of the company.
There is an expert system there, that can help to decide if there is a problem with the computer network. If there is, it will call a technician who is able to fix the problem.
One day, a user notices that she can no longer access a certain computer printer. She then connects to the expert system. The expert system will then ask some questions of her. She might be asked if she can access mail, or see the corporate website. She might also be asked if the printer is turned on, and if there is enough paper.
If a guy from the networking department had the same problem, the questions would be different. The Expert System would perhaps ask if the person is able to get an IP address using DHCP, or whether there are green light next to where his Ethernet cable is plugged into the switch.
[edit] Where expert systems are used
You will find expert systems in the following places:
- Controlling airplanes or the traffic of airplanes
- Helping people solve problems (The programs called ... Wizard or ... Assistant are often very simple expert systems)
[edit] How expert systems work
Expert systems are made of
- A set of rules
- A set of data
When they are asked a question, they will filter the data with the rules they have. They might give back a result, or ask an additional question.
[edit] Who uses expert systems
The primary goal of expert systems research is to make expertise available to decision makers and technicians who need answers quickly. There is never enough expertise to go around -- certainly it is not always available at the right place and the right time. Portable with computers loaded with in-depth knowledge of specific subjects can bring decades worth of knowledge to a problem. The same systems can assist supervisors and managers with situation assessment and long-range planning. Many small systems now exist that bring a narrow slice of in-depth knowledge to a specific problem, and these provide evidence that the broader goal is achievable.
These knowledge-based applications of artificial intelligence have enhanced productivity in business, science, engineering, and the military. With advances in the last decade, today's expert systems clients can choose from dozens of commercial software packages with easy-to-use interfaces. Each new deployment of an expert system yields valuable data for what works in what context, thus fueling the AI research that provides even better applications.
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