Expert Systems

Expert Systems

1. An expert system is a computer software that attempts to act like a human expert on a particular subject area

2. How does it work?

   • An expert system is made up of three parts:
     • 1: A user interface-This allows a non-expert user to query the expert system and receive advice. The user interface is designed to be as simple as possible
       • 2: A knowledge base - This is a collection of facts and rules. The knowledge base is created from information provided by human experts
         • 3: An inference engine - This acts rather like a search engine, examining the knowledge base for information that matches the user's query

3. Where are they used?

   • Medical diagnosis (the knowledge base would contain medical information, the symptoms of the patient would be used as the query, and the advice would be a diagnose of the patient’s illness)
     • Providing financial advice - whether to invest in a business, etc. (the knowledge base would contain data about the performance of financial markets and businesses in the past)
       • Helping to diagnose car engine problems

4. Disadvantages

   • Can't easily adapt to new circumstances (e.g. if they are presented with totally unexpected data, they are unable to process it)
   • Can be difficult to use (if the non-expert user makes mistakes when using the system, the resulting advice could be very wrong)
   • They have no 'common sense' (a human user tends to notice obvious errors, whereas a computer wouldn't)

5. Advantages

   • Expert advice available all the time
   • Can be used as a training aid to increase the expertise of staff
   • Makes rational decisions without any emotional overhead
   • Does not get tired or overworked