There are several programming languages that are known as Artificial Intelligence(AI) languages because they are used almost exclusively for AI applications. The two most common are LISP and Prolog.
ASIMO uses sensors and intelligent algorithms
to avoid obstacles and navigate stairs.
At first robots were used impersonally, in factories where they helped build automobiles, for instance. Then they were used in offices to deliver mail, or to show visitors around museums, or in homes as vacuum cleaners. Apart from this, AI must be utilized to understand human feelings , human appearance and we should be able to treat them just like us since, they will be able to make decisions and interpret them.
Robotics
The field of computer science and engineering concerned with creating robots, devices that can move and react to sensory input. Robotics is one branch ofartificial intelligence.
Robots are now widely used in factories to perform high-precision jobs such as welding and riveting. They are also used in special situations that would be dangerous for humans -- for example, in cleaning toxic wastes or defusing bombs.
Although great advances have been made in the field of robotics during the last decade, robots are still not very useful in everyday life, as they are too clumsy to perform ordinary household chores.
The term robotics was introduced by writer Isaac Asimov. In his science fiction book I, Robot,published in 1950, he presented three laws of robotics:
1. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
Questions
Q. How is AI research done?
A. AI research has both theoretical and experimental sides. The experimental side has both basic and applied aspects.
There are two main lines of research. One is biological, based on the idea that since humans are intelligent, AI should study humans and imitate their psychology or physiology. The other is phenomenal, based on studying and formalizing common sense facts about the world and the problems that the world presents to the achievement of goals. The two approaches interact to some extent, and both should eventually succeed. It is a race, but both racers seem to be walking.
Q. What are the relations between AI and philosophy?
A. AI has many relations with philosophy, especially modern analytic philosophy. Both study mind, and both study common sense. The best reference is [Tho03].
Q. How are AI and logic programming related?
A. At the very least, logic programming provides useful programming languages (mainly Prolog).
Beyond that, sometimes a theory useful in AI can be expressed as a collection of Horn clauses, and goal to be achieved can be expressed as that of finding values of variables satisfying an expression. The problem can sometimes be solved by running the Prolog program consisting of and .
There are two possible obstacles to regarding AI as logic programming. First, Horn theories do not exhaust first order logic. Second, the Prolog program expressing the theory may be extremely inefficient. More elaborate control than just executing the program that expresses the theory is often needed. Map coloring provides examples.
Q. What should I study before or while learning AI?
A. Study mathematics, especially mathematical logic. The more you learn about sciences, e.g. physics or biology, the better. For the biological approaches to AI, study psychology and the physiology of the nervous system. Learn some programming languages--at least C, Lisp and Prolog. It is also a good idea to learn one basic machine language. Jobs are likely to depend on knowing the languages currently in fashion. In the late 1990s, these include C++ and Java.
Q. What is a good textbook on AI?
A. Artificial Intelligence by Stuart Russell and Peter Norvig, Prentice Hall is the most commonly used textbbook in 1997. The general views expressed there do not exactly correspond to those of this essay. Artificial Intelligence: A New Synthesis by Nils Nilsson, Morgan Kaufman, may be easier to read. Some people prefer Computational Intelligence by David Poole, Alan Mackworth and Randy Goebel, Oxford, 1998.
Q. What organizations and publications are concerned with AI?
A. The American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), the European Coordinating Committee for Artificial Intelligence (ECCAI) and the Society for Artificial Intelligence and Simulation of Behavior (AISB) are scientific societies concerned with AI research. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has a special interest group on artificial intelligence SIGART.
