Text II. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

“Artificial intelligence” is a metapforic figure of speech designating an entire scientific trend includes mathematicians, linguists, psychologists, engineers, and many other specialists. The essence (суть) of this trend is the intensification of man’s creative activities with the aid of computers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is machine intelligence. It refers to applications of the computer which, in operation, resemble human intelligence. There are different categories of uses which all fall into the AI area. For example, robots or machines with sensory capabilities which detect and recognize sounds, pictures, etc., are one category. Another category is knowledge based systems, which contain a base of knowledge about a subject and can assist us in solving problems. Knowledge based systems being developed from the experience of human experts are called expert systems and can perform such tasks as medical diagnoses. AI will encompass (охватывать) many areas that have not been easily solved using traditional hardware and software.

AI will be incorporated into the 5th-generation computer systems. Then the average computer system should not require users to remember a lot of complex codes or commands. Rather, the user should ask: "Can you help me with this type of problem?" The master control program or operating system will be able to direct the user to the appropriate expert system through questions and answers.

AI programming is not magical; it does however imply a change in rules and methods for the traditional application programmer. Normal application programs follow a fixed algorithm: if this - do that. Given a set of input conditions, the output can be precisely determined. AI requires program design with more imagination. New methods of program organization and construction must be developed. AI programs may require the use of heuristic techniques, which are exploratory in nature and use trial and error methods. AI programs are often programmed in the LISP programming language, which allows the program designer to concentrate on the problem-solving logic more effectively than common languages like BASIC and COBOL.

It is impossible in principle to develop an artificial intelligence as it is sometimes understood literally (буквально), because the human brain is a very sophisticated system composed of tens of billions of interconnected cells. Each cell is extremely complex in itself. A rather probable hypothesis says that an individual cell processes the signals penetrating it like a computer. Therefore, even the most sophisticated machine we may imagine cannot even be compared to the brain. Man created the machine to fulfil his own requirements. A machine cannot have either human feelings, desires or emotions. Can anyone imagine a machine in love with someone? And what about the experience a person receives during his life in society through dealing all the time with purely human problems? A machine, in general, cannot think, cither logically or figuratively.

But nevertheless (тем не менее), the research trend of artificial intelligence will acquire ever greater importance as time goes because the programming and e technical means of artificial intelligence will ensure us of the opportunity to associate directly with the machine without the aid of a huge crowd of engineers, economists, biologists, chemists, and many other specialists. The question of AI acquires special importance for economic planning and management. In conditions when production is becoming automated, management must become automated as well.

One of the trends in AI now being intensively developed is to design so-called thinking robots, capable of a certain amount of independent activities.

The model of creative processes in computers gave birth to the term "artificial intelligence". But that doesn't mean that the computers possess it. The "intelligence" has been packaged in it an expert who developed the programme for solving some practical creative problem. Man differs from the machine in that he does not simply fulfil the programs stored in his memory, but also develops them himself, depending on the goals facing him.

Notes

1. a metaphoric figure of speech - метафорический образ речи

2. sensory capability - сенсорная способность (способность воспринимать)

3. knowledge based systems - экспертные системы

4. heuristic techniques - эвристические приемы (методы)

5. trial and error method - метод проб и ошибок

Control questions

4. What is the title of Text II?

5. What is the main idea of Text II?

6. What are the mail points of Text II?

APPENDIX

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