Expert Systems

Abstract

Perhaps the most important conception that the AI community has yet devised is that of an “expert system”. This involves the implementation of a body of expert knowledge in the form of a computer program in order to make that knowledge available to anyone who has the capability to utilize that program. If we define a domain as a class of problems that stand in need of solutions and an expert as someone who is prepared to solve them, then an expert system can be characterized as a program that, when suitably employed, can transmit an expert’s solutions to those confronted by problems within that domain. The appealing feature of this conception is that limited expert knowledge can be provided in almost unlimited supply for those who stand in need, thus rendering ordinary non-experts potentially as knowledgeable as the most extraordinary experts in domains as diverse as business, medicine, and psychology [see Hayes-Roth, Waterman, and Lenat (1983), Buchanan and Shortliife (1984), and Waterman (1986)].