Uncertainty In Artificial Intelligence

This book develops a framework that shows how uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence (AI) expands and generalizes traditional AI. It explores the uncertainties of knowledge and intelligence. The authors focus on the importance of natural language – the carrier of knowledge and intelligence, and introduce efficient physical methods for data mining amd control. In this new edition, we have more in-depth description of the models and methods, of which the mathematical properties are proved strictly which make these theories and methods more complete. The authors also highlight their latest research results.

Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence contains the proceedings of the Ninth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence held at the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, on July 9-11, 1993. The papers focus on methods of reasoning and decision making under uncertainty as applied to problems in artificial intelligence (AI) and cover topics ranging from knowledge acquisition and automated model construction to learning, planning, temporal reasoning, and machine vision. Comprised of 66 chapters, this book begins with a discussion on causality in Bayesian belief networks before turning to a decision theoretic account of conditional ought statements that rectifies glaring deficiencies in classical deontic logic and forms a sound basis for qualitative decision theory. Subsequent chapters explore trade-offs in constructing and evaluating temporal influence diagrams; normative engineering risk management systems; additive belief-network models; and sensitivity analysis for probability assessments in Bayesian networks. Automated model construction and learning as well as algorithms for inference and decision making are also considered. This monograph will be of interest to both students and practitioners in the fields of AI and computer science.

Clearly illustrated in this volume is the current relationship between Uncertainty and AI. It has been said that research in AI revolves around five basic questions asked relative to some particular domain: What knowledge is required? How can this knowledge be acquired? How can it be represented in a system? How should this knowledge be manipulated in order to provide intelligent behavior? How can the behavior be explained? In this volume, all of these questions are addressed. From the perspective of the relationship of uncertainty to the basic questions of AI, the book divides naturally into four sections which highlight both the strengths and weaknesses of the current state of the relationship between Uncertainty and AI.

How to deal with uncertainty is a subject of much controversy in Artificial Intelligence. This volume brings together a wide range of perspectives on uncertainty, many of the contributors being the principal proponents in the controversy. Some of the notable issues which emerge from these papers revolve around an interval-based calculus of uncertainty, the Dempster-Shafer Theory, and probability as the best numeric model for uncertainty. There remain strong dissenting opinions not only about probability but even about the utility of any numeric method in this context.

The representation of uncertainty is a central issue in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and is being addressed in many different ways. Each approach has its proponents, and each has had its detractors. However, there is now an in creasing move towards the belief that an eclectic approach is required to represent and reason under the many facets of uncertainty. We believe that the time is ripe for a wide ranging, yet accessible, survey of the main for malisms. In this book, we offer a broad perspective on uncertainty and approach es to managing uncertainty. Rather than provide a daunting mass of techni cal detail, we have focused on the foundations and intuitions behind the various schools. The aim has been to present in one volume an overview of the major issues and decisions to be made in representing uncertain knowl edge. We identify the central role of managing uncertainty to AI and Expert Systems, and provide a comprehensive introduction to the different aspects of uncertainty. We then describe the rationales, advantages and limitations of the major approaches that have been taken, using illustrative examples. The book ends with a review of the lessons learned and current research di rections in the field. The intended readership will include researchers and practitioners in volved in the design and implementation of Decision Support Systems, Ex pert Systems, other Knowledge-Based Systems and in Cognitive Science.

Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence: Proceedings of the Eighth Conference (1992) covers the papers presented at the Eighth Conference on Uncertainty in Artificial Intelligence, held at Stanford University on July 17-19, 1992. The book focuses on the processes, methodologies, technologies, and approaches involved in artificial intelligence. The selection first offers information on Relative Evidential Support (RES), modal logics for qualitative possibility and beliefs, and optimizing causal orderings for generating DAGs from data. Discussions focus on reversal, swap, and unclique operators, modal representation of possibility, and beliefs and conditionals. The text then examines structural controllability and observability in influence diagrams, lattice-based graded logic, and dynamic network models for forecasting. The manuscript takes a look at reformulating inference problems through selective conditioning, entropy and belief networks, parallelizing probabilistic inference, and a symbolic approach to reasoning with linguistic quantifiers. The text also ponders on sidestepping the triangulation problem in Bayesian net computations; exploring localization in Bayesian networks for large expert systems; and expressing relational and temporal knowledge in visual probabilistic networks. The selection is a valuable reference for researchers interested in artificial intelligence.

This second volume is arranged in four sections: Analysis contains papers which compare the attributes of various approaches to uncertainty. Tools provides sufficient information for the reader to implement uncertainty calculations. Papers in the Theory section explain various approaches to uncertainty. The Applications section describes the difficulties involved in, and the results produced by, incorporating uncertainty into actual systems.