Glossary of artificial intelligence

This glossary of artificial intelligence is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to the study of artificial intelligence (AI), its subdisciplines, and related fields. Related glossaries include Glossary of computer science, Glossary of robotics, Glossary of machine vision, and Glossary of logic.

== A ==

A* search Pronounced "A-star". A graph traversal and pathfinding algorithm which is used in many fields of computer science due to its completeness, optimality, and optimal efficiency.

abductive logic programming (ALP) A high-level knowledge-representation framework that can be used to solve problems declaratively based on abductive reasoning. It extends normal logic programming by allowing some predicates to be incompletely defined, declared as abducible predicates.

abductive reasoning Also abduction. A form of logical inference which starts with an observation or set of observations then seeks to find the simplest and most likely explanation. This process, unlike deductive reasoning, yields a plausible conclusion but does not positively verify it. abductive inference, or retroduction

ablation The removal of a component of an AI system. An ablation study aims to determine the contribution of a component to an AI system by removing the component, and then analyzing the resultant performance of the system.

abstract data type A mathematical model for data types, where a data type is defined by its behavior (semantics) from the point of view of a user of the data, specifically in terms of possible values, possible operations on data of this type, and the behavior of these operations.

abstraction The process of removing physical, spatial, or temporal details or attributes in the study of objects or systems in order to more closely attend to other details of interest

accelerating change A perceived increase in the rate of technological change throughout history, which may suggest faster and more profound change in the future and may or may not be accompanied by equally profound social and cultural change.

action language A language for specifying state transition systems, and is commonly used to create formal models of the effects of actions on the world. Action languages are commonly used in the artificial intelligence and robotics domains, where they describe how actions affect the states of systems over time, and may be used for automated planning.

action model learning An area of machine learning concerned with creation and modification of software agent's knowledge about effects and preconditions of the actions that can be executed within its environment. This knowledge is usually represented in logic-based action description language and used as the input for automated planners.

action selection A way of characterizing the most basic problem of intelligent systems: what to do next. In artificial intelligence and computational cognitive science, "the action selection problem" is typically associated with intelligent agents and animats—artificial systems that exhibit complex behaviour in an agent environment.

activation function In artificial neural networks, the activation function of a node defines the output of that node given an input or set of inputs.

adaptive algorithm An algorithm that changes its behavior at the time it is run, based on a priori defined reward mechanism or criterion.

adaptive neuro fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) Also adaptive network-based fuzzy inference system. A kind of artificial neural network that is based on Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy inference system. The technique was developed in the early 1990s. Since it integrates both neural networks and fuzzy logic principles, it has potential to capture the benefits of both in a single framework. Its inference system corresponds to a set of fuzzy IF–THEN rules that have learning capability to approximate nonlinear functions. Hence, ANFIS is considered to be a universal estimator. For using the ANFIS in a more efficient and optimal way, one can use the best parameters obtained by genetic algorithm.

admissible heuristic In computer science, specifically in algorithms related to pathfinding, a heuristic function is said to be admissible if it never overestimates the cost of reaching the goal, i.e. the cost it estimates to reach the goal is not higher than the lowest possible cost from the current point in the path.

affective computing Also artificial emotional intelligence or emotion AI. The study and development of systems and devices that can recognize, interpret, process, and simulate human affects. Affective computing is an interdisciplinary field spanning computer science, psychology, and cognitive science.

agent architecture A blueprint for software agents and intelligent control systems, depicting the arrangement of components. The architectures implemented by intelligent agents are referred to as cognitive architectures.

AI accelerator A class of microprocessor or computer system designed as hardware acceleration for artificial intelligence applications, especially artificial neural networks, machine vision, and machine learning.

AI-complete In the field of artificial intelligence, the most difficult problems are informally known as AI-complete or AI-hard, implying that the difficulty of these computational problems is equivalent to that of solving the central artificial intelligence problem—making computers as intelligent as people, or strong AI. To call a problem AI-complete reflects an attitude that it would not be solved by a simple specific algorithm.

algorithm An unambiguous specification of how to solve a class of problems. Algorithms can perform calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning tasks.

algorithmic efficiency A property of an algorithm which relates to the number of computational resources used by the algorithm. An algorithm must be analyzed to determine its resource usage, and the efficiency of an algorithm can be measured based on usage of different resources. Algorithmic efficiency can be thought of as analogous to engineering productivity for a repeating or continuous process.

algorithmic probability In algorithmic information theory, algorithmic probability, also known as Solomonoff probability, is a mathematical method of assigning a prior probability to a given observation. It was invented by Ray Solomonoff in the 1960s.

AlphaGo A computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by Alphabet Inc.'s Google DeepMind in London. AlphaGo has several versions including AlphaGo Zero, AlphaGo Master, AlphaGo Lee, etc. In October 2015, AlphaGo became the first computer Go program to beat a human professional Go player without handicaps on a full-sized 19×19 board.

ambient intelligence (AmI) Electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people.

analysis of algorithms The determination of the computational complexity of algorithms, that is the amount of time, storage and/or other resources necessary to execute them. Usually, this involves determining a function that relates the length of an algorithm's input to the number of steps it takes (its time complexity) or the number of storage locations it uses (its space complexity).

analytics The discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data.

answer set programming (ASP) A form of declarative programming oriented towards difficult (primarily NP-hard) search problems. It is based on the stable model (answer set) semantics of logic programming. In ASP, search problems are reduced to computing stable models, and answer set solvers—programs for generating stable models—are used to perform search.

ant colony optimization (ACO) A probabilistic technique for solving computational problems that can be reduced to finding good paths through graphs.

anytime algorithm An algorithm that can return a valid solution to a problem even if it is interrupted before it ends.

application programming interface (API) A set of subroutine definitions, communication protocols, and tools for building software. In general terms, it is a set of clearly defined methods of communication among various components. A good API makes it easier to develop a computer program by providing all the building blocks, which are then put together by the programmer. An API may be for a web-based system, operating system, database system, computer hardware, or software library.

approximate string matching Also fuzzy string searching. The technique of finding strings that match a pattern approximately (rather than exactly). The problem of approximate string matching is typically divided into two sub-problems: finding approximate substring matches inside a given string and finding dictionary strings that match the pattern approximately.

approximation error The discrepancy between an exact value and some approximation to it.

argumentation framework Also argumentation system. A way to deal with contentious information and draw conclusions from it. In an abstract argumentation framework, entry-level information is a set of abstract arguments that, for instance, represent data or a proposition. Conflicts between arguments are represented by a binary relation on the set of arguments. In concrete terms, you represent an argumentation framework with a directed graph such that the nodes are the arguments, and the arrows represent the attack relation. There exist some extensions of the Dung's framework, like the logic-based argumentation frameworks or the value-based argumentation frameworks.

artificial general intelligence (AGI) A type of AI that matches or surpasses human cognitive capabilities across a wide range of cognitive tasks.

artificial immune system (AIS) A class of computationally intelligent, rule-based machine learning systems inspired by the principles and processes of the vertebrate immune system. The algorithms are typically modeled after the immune system's characteristics of learning and memory for use in problem-solving.

artificial intelligence (AI) Also machine intelligence. Any intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans and other animals. In computer science, AI research is defined as the study of "intelligent agents": any device that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of successfully achieving its goals. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving".

Artificial Intelligence Markup Language An XML dialect for creating natural language software agents.

Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) An international, nonprofit, scientific society devoted to promote research in, and responsible use of, artificial intelligence. AAAI also aims to increase public understanding of artificial intelligence (AI), improve the teaching and training of AI practitioners, and provide guidance for research planners and funders concerning the importance and potential of current AI developments and future directions.

asymptotic computational complexity In computational complexity theory, asymptotic computational complexity is the usage of asymptotic analysis for the estimation of computational complexity of algorithms and computational problems, commonly associated with the usage of the big O notation.

attention mechanism Machine learning-based attention is a mechanism mimicking cognitive attention. It calculates "soft" weights for each word, more precisely for its embedding, in the context window. It can do it either in parallel (such as in transformers) or sequentially (such as in recursive neural networks). "Soft" weights can change during each runtime, in contrast to "hard" weights, which are (pre-)trained and fine-tuned and remain frozen afterwards. Multiple attention heads are used in transformer-based large language models.

attributional calculus A logic and representation system defined by Ryszard S. Michalski. It combines elements of predicate logic, propositional calculus, and multi-valued logic. Attributional calculus provides a formal language for natural induction, an inductive learning process whose results are in forms natural to people.

augmented reality (AR)

An interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real-world are "augmented" by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.

autoencoder A type of artificial neural network used to learn efficient codings of unlabeled data (unsupervised learning). A common implementation is the variational autoencoder (VAE).

automata theory The study of abstract machines and automata, as well as the computational problems that can be solved using them. It is a theory in theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics (a subject of study in both mathematics and computer science).

automated machine learning (AutoML) A field of machine learning (ML) which aims to automatically configure an ML system to maximize its performance (e.g, classification accuracy).

automated planning and scheduling Also simply AI planning. A branch of artificial intelligence that concerns the realization of strategies or action sequences, typically for execution by intelligent agents, autonomous robots and unmanned vehicles. Unlike classical control and classification problems, the solutions are complex and must be discovered and optimized in multidimensional space. Planning is also related to decision theory.

automated reasoning An area of computer science and mathematical logic dedicated to understanding different aspects of reasoning. The study of automated reasoning helps produce computer programs that allow computers to reason completely, or nearly completely, automatically. Although automated reasoning is considered a sub-field of artificial intelligence, it also has connections with theoretical computer science, and even philosophy.

autonomic computing (AC) The self-managing characteristics of distributed computing resources, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users. Initiated by IBM in 2001, this initiative ultimately aimed to develop computer systems capable of self-management, to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management, and to reduce the barrier that complexity poses to further growth.

autonomous car Also self-driving car, robot car, and driverless car. A vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and moving with little or no human input.

autonomous robot A robot that performs behaviors or tasks with a high degree of autonomy. Autonomous robotics is usually considered to be a subfield of artificial intelligence, robotics, and information engineering.

== B ==

backpropagation A method used in artificial neural networks to calculate a gradient that is needed in the calculation of the weights to be used in the network. Backpropagation is shorthand for "the backward propagation of errors", since an error is computed at the output and distributed backwards throughout the network's layers. It is commonly used to train deep neural networks, a term referring to neural networks with more than one hidden layer.

backpropagation through structure (BPTS) A gradient-based technique for training recurrent neural networks, proposed in a 1996 paper written by Christoph Goller and Andreas Küchler.

backpropagation through time (BPTT) A gradient-based technique for training certain types of recurrent neural networks, such as Elman networks. The algorithm was independently derived by numerous researchers.

backward chaining Also backward reasoning. An inference method described colloquially as working backward from the goal. It is used in automated theorem provers, inference engines, proof assistants, and other artificial intelligence applications.

bag-of-words model A simplifying representation used in natural language processing and information retrieval (IR). In this model, a text (such as a sentence or a document) is represented as the bag (multiset) of its words, disregarding grammar and even word order but keeping multiplicity. The bag-of-words model has also been used for computer vision. The bag-of-words model is commonly used in methods of document classification where the (frequency of) occurrence of each word is used as a feature for training a classifier.

bag-of-words model in computer vision In computer vision, the bag-of-words model (BoW model) can be applied to image classification, by treating image features as words. In document classification, a bag of words is a sparse vector of occurrence counts of words; that is, a sparse histogram over the vocabulary. In computer vision, a bag of visual words is a vector of occurrence counts of a vocabulary of local image features.

batch normalization A technique for improving the performance and stability of artificial neural networks. It is a technique to provide any layer in a neural network with inputs that are zero mean/unit variance. Batch normalization was introduced in a 2015 paper. It is used to normalize the input layer by adjusting and scaling the activations.

Bayesian programming A formalism and a methodology for having a technique to specify probabilistic models and solve problems when less than the necessary information is available.

bees algorithm A population-based search algorithm which was developed by Pham, Ghanbarzadeh and et al. in 2005. It mimics the food foraging behaviour of honey bee colonies. In its basic version the algorithm performs a kind of neighborhood search combined with global search, and can be used for both combinatorial optimization and continuous optimization. The only condition for the application of the bees algorithm is that some measure of distance between the solutions is defined. The effectiveness and specific abilities of the bees algorithm have been proven in a number of studies.

behavior informatics (BI) The informatics of behaviors so as to obtain behavior intelligence and behavior insights.

behavior tree (BT) A mathematical model of plan execution used in computer science, robotics, control systems and video games. They describe switchings between a finite set of tasks in a modular fashion. Their strength comes from their ability to create very complex tasks composed of simple tasks, without worrying how the simple tasks are implemented. BTs present some similarities to hierarchical state machines with the key difference that the main building block of a behavior is a task rather than a state. Its ease of human understanding make BTs less error-prone and very popular in the game developer community. BTs have shown to generalize several other control architectures.

belief–desire–intention software model (BDI) A software model developed for programming intelligent agents. Superficially characterized by the implementation of an agent's beliefs, desires and intentions, it actually uses these concepts to solve a particular problem in agent programming. In essence, it provides a mechanism for separating the activity of selecting a plan (from a plan library or an external planner application) from the execution of currently active plans. Consequently, BDI agents are able to balance the time spent on deliberating about plans (choosing what to do) and executing those plans (doing it). A third activity, creating the plans in the first place (planning), is not within the scope of the model, and is left to the system designer and programmer.

bias–variance tradeoff In statistics and machine learning, the bias–variance tradeoff is the property of a set of predictive models whereby models with a lower bias in parameter estimation have a higher variance of the parameter estimates ...

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Artificial Intelligence - Computer Science