Best of
Artificial-Intelligence

2009

Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles and Techniques


Daphne Koller - 2009
    The framework of probabilistic graphical models, presented in this book, provides a general approach for this task. The approach is model-based, allowing interpretable models to be constructed and then manipulated by reasoning algorithms. These models can also be learned automatically from data, allowing the approach to be used in cases where manually constructing a model is difficult or even impossible. Because uncertainty is an inescapable aspect of most real-world applications, the book focuses on probabilistic models, which make the uncertainty explicit and provide models that are more faithful to reality.Probabilistic Graphical Models discusses a variety of models, spanning Bayesian networks, undirected Markov networks, discrete and continuous models, and extensions to deal with dynamical systems and relational data. For each class of models, the text describes the three fundamental cornerstones: representation, inference, and learning, presenting both basic concepts and advanced techniques. Finally, the book considers the use of the proposed framework for causal reasoning and decision making under uncertainty. The main text in each chapter provides the detailed technical development of the key ideas. Most chapters also include boxes with additional material: skill boxes, which describe techniques; case study boxes, which discuss empirical cases related to the approach described in the text, including applications in computer vision, robotics, natural language understanding, and computational biology; and concept boxes, which present significant concepts drawn from the material in the chapter. Instructors (and readers) can group chapters in various combinations, from core topics to more technically advanced material, to suit their particular needs.

The Quest for Artificial Intelligence: A History of Ideas and Achievements


Nils J. Nilsson - 2009
    This book traces the history of the subject, from the early dreams of eighteenth-century (and earlier) pioneers to the more successful work of today's AI engineers. AI is becoming more and more a part of everyone's life. The technology is already embedded in face-recognizing cameras, speech-recognition software, Internet search engines, and health-care robots, among other applications. The book's many diagrams and easy-to-understand descriptions of AI programs will help the casual reader gain an understanding of how these and other AI systems actually work. Its thorough (but unobtrusive) end-of-chapter notes containing citations to important source materials will be of great use to AI scholars and researchers. This book promises to be the definitive history of a field that has captivated the imaginations of scientists, philosophers, and writers for centuries.

Tutorial on Neural Systems Modeling


Thomas J. Anastasio - 2009
    The goal of this new book is to make these tools accessible. It is written specifically for students in neuroscience, cognitive science, and related areas who want to learn about neuralsystems modeling but lack extensive background in mathematics and computer programming.The book opens with an introduction to computer programming. Each of twelve subsequent chapters presents a different modeling paradigm by describing its basic structure and showing how it can be applied in understanding brain function. The text guides the reader through short, simple computerprograms--printed in the book and available by download at the companion website--that implement the paradigms and simulate real neural systems. Motivation for the simulations is provided in the form of a narrative that places specific aspects of neural system behavior in the context of more generalbrain function. The narrative integrates instruction for using the programs with description of neural system function, and readers can actively experience the fun and excitement of doing the simulations themselves. Designed as a hands-on tutorial for students, this book also serves instructors asboth a teaching tool and a source of examples and exercises that provide convenient starting points for more in-depth exploration of topics of their own specific interest.The distinguishing pedagogical feature of this book is its computer programs, written in MATLAB, that help readers develop basic skill in the area of neural systems modeling. (All of the program files are available online via the book's companion website.) Actual data on real neural systems ispresented in the book for comparison with the results of the simulations. Also included are asides (Math Boxes) that present mathematical material that is relevant but not essential to running the programs. Exercises and references at the end of each chapter invite readers to explore each topicarea on their own.

Principles of Synthetic Intelligence: Psi: An Architecture of Motivated Cognition


Joscha Bach - 2009
    These architectures and their implementation have several lessons for other architectures and models. Most notably, the PSI architecture includes drives and thusdirectly addresses questions of emotional behavior. An architecture including drives helps clarify how emotions could arise. It also changes the way that the architecture works on a fundamental level, providing an architecture more suited for behaving autonomously in a simulated world. PSI includesthree types of drives, physiological (e.g., hunger), social (i.e., affiliation needs), and cognitive (i.e., reduction of uncertainty and expression of competency). These drives routinely influence goal formation and knowledge selection and application. The resulting architecture generates new kindsof behaviors, including context dependent memories, socially motivated behavior, and internally motivated task switching. This architecture illustrates how emotions and physical drives can be included in an embodied cognitive architecture.The PSI architecture, while including perceptual, motor, learning, and cognitive processing components, also includes several novel knowledge representations: temporal structures, spatial memories, and several new information processing mechanisms and behaviors, including progress through types ofknowledge sources when problem solving (the Rasmussen ladder), and knowledge-based hierarchical active vision. These mechanisms and representations suggest ways for making other architectures more realistic, more accurate, and easier to use.The architecture is demonstrated in the Island simulated environment. While it may look like a simple game, it was carefully designed to allow multiple tasks to be pursued and provides ways to satisfy the multiple drives. It would be useful in its own right for developing other architecturesinterested in multi-tasking, long-term learning, social interaction, embodied architectures, and related aspects of behavior that arise in a complex but tractable real-time environment.The resulting models are not presented as validated cognitive models, but as theoretical explorations in the space of architectures for generating behavior. The sweep of the architecture can thus be larger-it presents a new cognitive architecture attempting to provide a unified theory of cognition. It attempts to cover perhaps the largest number of phenomena to date. This is not a typical cognitive modeling work, but one that I believe that we can learn much from.--Frank E. Ritter, Series EditorAlthough computational models of cognition have become very popular, these models are relatively limited in their coverage of cognition-- they usually only emphasize problem solving and reasoning, or treat perception and motivation as isolated modules. The first architecture to cover cognition morebroadly is PSI theory, developed by Dietrich Dorner. By integrating motivation and emotion with perception and reasoning, and including grounded neuro-symbolic representations, PSI contributes significantly to an integrated understanding of the mind. It provides a conceptual framework thathighlights the relationships between perception and memory, language and mental representation, reasoning and motivation, emotion and cognition, autonomy and social behavior. It is, however, unfortunate that PSI's origin in psychology, its methodology, and its lack of documentation have limited itsimpact. The proposed book adapts Psi theory to cognitive science and artificial intelligence, by elucidating both its theoretical and technical frameworks, and clarifying its contribution to how we have come to understand cognition.

Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI


Dave Mark - 2009
    Usually, the answers cannot be found in sterile algorithms that are often the focus of artificial intelligence programming. However, by analyzing why people behave the way we do, we can break down the process into increasingly smaller components. We can model many of those individual components in the language of logic and mathematics and then reassemble them into larger, more involved decision-making processes. Drawing from classical game theory, "Behavioral Mathematics for Game AI" covers both the psychological foundations of human decisions and the mathematical modeling techniques that AI designers and programmers can use to replicate them. With examples from both real life and game situations, you'll explore topics such as utility, the fallacy of rational behavior, and the inconsistencies and contradictions that human behavior often exhibits. You'll examine various ways of using statistics, formulas, and algorithms to create believable simulations and to model these dynamic, realistic, and interesting behaviors in video games. Finally, you'll be introduced to a number of tools you can use in conjunction with standard AI algorithms to make it easier to utilize the mathematical models.

Artificial Intelligence


Bert van Dam - 2009
    

Statistical Machine Translation


Philipp Koehn - 2009
    In general, statistical techniques allow automatic translation systems to be built quickly for any language-pair using only translated texts and generic software. With increasing globalization, statistical machine translation will be central to communication and commerce. Based on courses and tutorials, and classroom-tested globally, it is ideal for instruction or self-study, for advanced undergraduates and graduate students in computer science and/or computational linguistics, and researchers in natural language processing. The companion website provides open-source corpora and tool-kits.

Handbook of Practical Logic and Automated Reasoning


John E. Harrison - 2009
    The mathematical logic foundations are described in conjunction with practical application, all with the minimum of prerequisites. The approach is constructive, concrete and algorithmic: a key feature is that methods are described with reference to actual implementations (for which code is supplied) that readers can use, modify and experiment with. This book is ideally suited for those seeking a one-stop source for the general area of automated reasoning. It can be used as a reference, or as a place to learn the fundamentals, either in conjunction with advanced courses or for self study.

Diagrammatic Reasoning in AI


Robbie T. Nakatsu - 2009
    The author expertly demonstrates how diagrammatic representations can simplify our interaction with increasingly complex information technologies and computer-based information systems. In particular, the book emphasizes how diagrammatic user interfaces can help us better understand and visualize artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It examines how diagrammatic reasoning enhances various AI programming strategies used to emulate human thinking and problem-solving, including:Expert systems Model-based reasoning Inexact reasoning such as certainty factors and Bayesian networks Logic reasoning A key part of the book is its extensive development of applications and graphical illustrations, drawing on such fields as the physical sciences, macroeconomics, finance, business logistics management, and medicine. Despite such tremendous diversity of usage, in terms of applications and diagramming notations, the book classifies and organizes diagrams around six major themes: system topology; sequence and flow; hierarchy and classification; association; cause and effect; and logic reasoning. Readers will benefit from the author's discussion of how diagrams can be more than just a static picture or representation and how diagrams can be a central part of an intelligent user interface, meant to be manipulated and modified, and in some cases, utilized to infer solutions to difficult problems.This book is ideal for many different types of readers: practitioners and researchers in AI and human-computer interaction; business and computing professionals; graphic designers and designers of graphical user interfaces; and just about anyone interested in understanding the power of diagrams. By discovering the many different types of diagrams and their applications in AI, all readers will gain a deeper appreciation of diagrammatic reasoning.