Expert Systems

Expert Systems

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

2. How an expert system works: (1) Someone comes along and asks them advice about a problem within their specialty.

3. The expert asks a number of questions to help them formulate an answer.

4. The dialogue continues until the expert can offer one or more solutions to the problem.

5. They may also be able to prioritise the solutions in terms of their practicality or other factor such as cost / benefit.

6. Advantages

   • Expert advice available all the time
   • Knowledge of expert staff can be captured to some extent before they move on.
   • 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.
   • Efficient way of getting answers as it does not involve additional help staff e.g. automated help systems
   • Natural language interface would make the expert system more human friendly

7. 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

Imagens e arquivos do mapa