MIS

CHAPTER 13

INTELLIGENT
INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Hossein BIDGOLI

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 Chapter 13 Intelligent Information Systems

learning outcomes
LO1 Define artificial intelligence and explain how these
technologies support decision making.
LO2 Explain an expert system, its applications, and its
components.
LO3 Describe case-based reasoning.
LO4 Summarize types of intelligent agents and how
they’re used.
LO5 Describe fuzzy logic and its uses.

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l e a r n i n g o u t c o m e s (cont’d.)
LO6 Explain artificial neural networks.
LO7 Describe how genetic algorithms are used.
LO8 Explain natural language processing and its
advantages and disadvantages.
LO9 Summarize the advantages of integrating AI
technologies into decision support systems.

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 Chapter 13 Intelligent Information Systems

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
– Consists of related technologies that try to simulate
and reproduce human thought and behavior
– Includes thinking, speaking, feeling, and reasoning
• AI technologies
– Concerned with generating and displaying knowledge
and facts

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What Is Artificial Intelligence? (cont’d.)

• Knowledge engineers try to discover “rules of
thumb”
– Enable computers to perform tasks usually handled
by humans
• Capabilities of these systems have improved in
an attempt to close the gap between artificial
intelligence and human intelligence

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AI Technologies Supporting Decision Making

• Decision makers use information technologies in
decision-making analyses:
– What-is
– What-if
• Other questions:
– Why?
– What does it mean?
– What should be done?
– When should it be done?

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Table 13.1 Applications of AI Technologies

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Robotics
• Some of the most successful applications of AI
• Perform well at simple, repetitive tasks
• Currently used mainly on assembly lines in
Japan and the United States
• Cost of industrial robots
• Some robots have limited vision

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 Chapter 13 Intelligent Information Systems

Robotics (cont’d.)
• Honda’s ASIMO
– One of the most advanced and most popular robots
– Works with other robots in coordination
• Personal robots
– Mobility, limited vision, and some speech capabilities
• Robots have some unique advantages in the
workplace compared with humans

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 Chapter 13 Intelligent Information Systems

Expert Systems
• One of the most successful AI-related
technologies
• Mimic human expertise in a field to solve a
problem in a well-defined area
• Consist of programs that mimic human thought
behavior
– In a specific area that human experts have solved
successfully
• Work with heuristics

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Components of an Expert System

• Knowledge acquisition facility
• Knowledge base
• Factual knowledge
• Heuristic knowledge
• Meta-knowledge
• Knowledge base management system
(KBMS)
• Explanation facility
• Inference engine
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Exhibit 13.1 An Expert System Configuration

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Components of an Expert System (cont’d.)

• Forward chaining
– Series of “If-Then-Else”
– Condition pairs are performed
• “If” condition is evaluated first
• Then the corresponding “Then-Else” action is
carried out
• Backward chaining
– Starts with the goal first—the Then part
– Backtracks to find the right solution

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Components of an Expert System (cont’d.)

• Semantic (associative) networks
– Represent information as links and nodes
• Frames
– Store conditions or objects in hierarchical order
• Scripts
– Describe a sequence of events

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Uses of Expert Systems

• Airline industry
• Forensics lab work
• Banking and finance
• Education
• Food industry
• Personal management
• Security
• US Government
• Agriculture
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Expert Systems in Baltimore County Police

Department
• In Baltimore County, an expert system was developed so
that detectives could analyze information about burglary
sites and identify possible suspects

• Detectives could enter statements about burglaries, such

as neighborhood characteristics, the type of property
stolen, and the type of entry used; they could also get
information on possible suspects

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Criteria for Using Expert Systems

• Human expertise is needed but one expert can’t
investigate all the dimensions of a problem
• Knowledge can be represented as rules or
heuristics
• Decision or task has already been handled
successfully by human experts
• Decision or task requires consistency and
standardization

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Criteria for Using Expert Systems (cont’d.)

• Subject domain is limited
• Decision or task involves many rules and
complex logic
• Scarcity of experts in the organization

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Criteria for Not Using Expert Systems

• Very few rules
• Too many rules
• Well-structured numerical problems are involved
• Problems are in areas that are too wide and
shallow
• Disagreement among experts
• Problems are solved better by human experts

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Advantages of Expert Systems

• Never becomes distracted, forgetful, or tired
• Duplicates and preserves the expertise of scarce
experts
• Preserve the expertise of employees who are
retiring or leaving an organization
• Creates consistency in decision making
• Improves the decision-making skills of
nonexperts

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Case-Based Reasoning
• Problem-solving technique
• Matches a new case (problem) with a previously
solved case and its solution stored in a database
• If there’s no exact match between the new case
and cases stored in the database:
– System can query the user for clarification or more
information
• If still no match found:
– Human expert must solve the problem

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Intelligent Agents
• Bots (short for robots)
• Applications of artificial intelligence are
becoming more popular
– Particularly in e-commerce
• Consist of software capable of reasoning and
following rule-based processes

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Intelligent Agents (cont’d.)

• Characteristics:
– Adaptability
– Autonomy
– Collaborative behavior
– Human-like interface
– Mobility
– Reactivity

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Intelligent Agents (cont’d.)

• Web marketing
– Collects information about customers, such as items
purchased, demographic information, and expressed
and implied preferences
• “Virtual catalogs”
– Display product descriptions based on customers’
previous experiences and preferences

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Shopping and Information Agents

• Help users navigate through the vast resources
available on the Web
• Provide better results in finding information
• Examples:
– PriceScan
– BestBookBuys.com
– www.mysimon.com
– DogPile
• Searches the Web by using several search engines
• Eliminates duplicate results
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Personal Agents
• Agents perform specific tasks for a user
• Such as:
– Remembering information for filling out Web forms
– Completing e-mail addresses after the first few
characters are typed

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Data-Mining Agents
• Work with a data warehouse
• Detect trend changes
• Discover new information and relationships
among data items that aren’t readily apparent
• Having this information early enables decision
makers to come up with a solution that
minimizes the negative effects of the problem

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Monitoring and Surveillance Agents

• Track and report on computer equipment and
network systems
– To predict when a system crash or failure might occur
• Example: NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Fuzzy Logic
• Allows a smooth, gradual transition between
human and computer vocabularies
• Deals with variations in linguistic terms by using
a degree of membership
• Designed to help computers simulate vagueness
and uncertainty in common situations
• Works based on the degree of membership in a
set

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Exhibit 13.3 Degree of Membership in a Fuzzy System

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Uses of Fuzzy Logic

• Used in:
– Search engines, chip design, database management
systems, software development, and more
• Examples:
– Dryers
– Refrigerators
– Shower systems
– TVs
– Video camcorders

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Artificial Neural Networks

• Networks that learn and are capable of
performing tasks that are difficult with
conventional computers
• Examples:
– Playing chess
– Recognizing patterns in faces
• Used for poorly structured problems
• Use patterns instead of the “If-Then-Else” rules
that expert systems use
• Create a model based on input and output
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Exhibit 13.4 An Artificial Neural Network Configuration

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Artificial Neural Networks (cont’d.)

• Used for many tasks, including:
– Bankruptcy prediction
– Credit rating
– Investment analysis
– Oil and gas exploration
– Target marketing

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Neural Networks in Action

• Many companies are able to predict customers’
shopping behavior based on past purchases
• E-banks use neural networks to rank their
customers into groups
• Visa International
– Introduced a credit authorization system based on
neural networks to reduce credit card fraud
– Could cut fraudulent transactions by as much as 40%

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Genetic Algorithms
• Used mostly in techniques to find solutions to
optimization and search problems
• Applications:
– Jet engine design, portfolio development, and
network design
• Find the combination of inputs that generates
the most desirable outputs
• Techniques:
– Selection or survival of the fittest
– Crossover
– Mutation
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Natural Language Processing

• Developed so that users can communicate with
computers in their own language
• Provides question-and-answer setting that’s
more natural and easier for people to use
• Products aren’t capable of a dialogue that
compares with conversations between humans
– However, progress has been steady

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Table 13.2 NLP Systems

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Natural Language Processing (cont’d.)

• Categories:
– Interface to databases
– Machine translation
– Text scanning and intelligent indexing programs for
summarizing large amounts of text
– Generating text for automated production of standard
documents
– Speech systems for voice interaction with computers

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Natural Language Processing (cont’d.)

• Interfacing
– Accepting human language as input
– Carrying out the corresponding command
– Generating the necessary output
• Knowledge acquisition
– Using the computer to read large amounts of text and
understand the information well enough to:
• Summarize important points and store information
so that the system can respond to inquiries about
the content

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Integrating AI Technologies into Decision Support

Systems
• I-related technologies can improve the quality of
decision support systems (DSSs)
– Including expert systems, natural language
processing, and artificial neural networks
• Benefits of integrating an expert system into the
database component of a DSS are:
– Adding deductive reasoning to traditional DBMS
functions
– Improving access speed

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Summary
• Intelligent information systems
– AI technologies are used to support decision-making
processes
• Expert systems
– Components
• Case-based reasoning
• Intelligent agents
• Fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms
• Natural language processing

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