In artificial intelligence, an expert system is a computer system that emulates the decision-making ability of a human expert. Expert systems are designed to solve complex problems by reasoning about knowledge, like an expert, and not by following the procedure of a developer as is the case in conventional programming. The first expert systems were created in the 1970s and then proliferated in the 1980s. Expert systems were among the first truly successful forms of AI software.
An expert system has a unique structure, different from traditional programs. It is divided into two parts, one fixed, independent of the expert system: the inference engine, and one variable: the knowledge base. To run an expert system, the engine reasons about the knowledge base like a human. In the 80s a third part appeared: a dialog interface to communicate with users. This ability to conduct a conversation with users was later called "conversational".
Read more about Expert System: History, Advantages, Disadvantages, Application Field, Examples of Applications, Knowledge Engineering
Famous quotes containing the words expert and/or system:
“An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field.”
—Niels Bohr (1885–1962)
“We recognize caste in dogs because we rank ourselves by the familiar dog system, a ladderlike social arrangement wherein one individual outranks all others, the next outranks all but the first, and so on down the hierarchy. But the cat system is more like a wheel, with a high-ranking cat at the hub and the others arranged around the rim, all reluctantly acknowledging the superiority of the despot but not necessarily measuring themselves against one another.”
—Elizabeth Marshall Thomas. “Strong and Sensitive Cats,” Atlantic Monthly (July 1994)