Expert Systems

Expert Systems

1. What is an expert system?

   • An ICT system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make decisions based on data supplied in the form of answers to questions

2. 3 components of an expert system

   • A user interface (Presents the questions and receives the answers)
   • Inference engine (A set of rules)
   • Knowledge base (A database of knowledge about one subject)

3. How does an expert system work?

   • In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert.
   • Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning through bodies of knowledge, represented mainly as if–then rules rather than through conventional procedural code.

4. Expert system shells

   • Provides the inference engine and user interface, but the knowledge will have to be entered separately
   • MYCIN – Used in medicine to pinpoint the correct organism that is responsible for a blood infection.
   • NEOMYCIN – Used to train doctors with case studies.

5. Medical use of expert systems

   • Diagnosing patients illness

6. Advantages

   • Consistency
   • Cheaper
   • Cannot forget
   • Consult a much larger pool of information than a doctor
   • Available 24/7

7. Disadvantages

   • Can make absurd errors
   • Not being able to realise when no answer is available to a problem
   • Relies on rules and knowledge being correct.
   • Not able to provide creative responses
   • No common sense