Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems

 

What cognitive functions do AI systems try to imitate?

AI systems try to imitate the cognitive functions of thinking, remembering, reasoning, and using language.

 

In what kinds of business areas has AI technology been successfully applied?

AI technology has been used successfully in decision support, information retrieval, virtual reality, and robotics.  In decision support, AI has been used to do things like situational assessment and resource allocation.  AI is used in information retrieval for things like financial forecasting.  AI is used in virtual reality for things like automated animation and haptic interfaces that allow users to interact with virtual objects via touch.  Lastly, AI is used in robotics for things like trainable modular vision systems.

 

Typically, in order for an AI system to be successful, what must be true about the area of application, especially in terms of knowledge and decision making?

AI systems use reasoning and logic to make decisions.  They can learn through trial and error, just like humans.  AI systems work well with tasks that are repetitive, or have clear-cut rules used to make decisions.  AI does not perform well when used to make managerial decisions because these decisions require such a broad knowledge base.

 

What is a successful model of how human decision makers use AI support?

AI has been successfully applied in the field of medicine.  Neurosurgeons are able to use a robotic probe (containing AI) to move through the brain and find tumors because it can sense the difference between healthy and unhealthy tissue.  This allows doctors to pin-point the area of the brain they have to treat.