Expert systems

Expert systems

1. what is an expert system?

   • a piece of software which uses databases of expert knowledge to offer advice or make decisions in such areas as medical diagnosis.

2. Where are they used?

   • Medical
     • used to diagnose symptoms
   • strategy games
   • Financial advise
   • identify items
   • discover oil drilling locations

3. how does it work

   • User interface
     • This is the system that allows a non-expert user to query (question) the expert system, and to receive advice. The user-interface is designed to be a simple to use as possible
   • knowledge base
     • This is a collection of facts and rules. The knowledge base is created from information provided by human experts
   • inference engine
     • This acts rather like a search engine, examining the knowledge base for information that matches the user's query

4. disadvantages

   • Usually only covers a narrow range of knowledge A lot of effort and cost has to go into making a good expert system Not as good as having human experts to hand. Most expert systems are menu driven which does not deal very well with ambiguous problems. Advanced interfaces such as natural language processing still has some way to go before they are truly effective. Does not learn from mistakes unless user feedback and human maintenance is part of its ongoing development Unlikely to come up with creative solutions