This is the start of a simple glossary of short definitions for AI terminology. ai: A three-toed sloth of genus Bradypus. This forest-dwelling animal eats the leaves of the trumpet-tree and sounds a high-pitched squeal when disturbed. (Based on the Random House dictionary definition.) Admissibility: An admissible search algorithm is one that is guaranteed to find an optimal path from the start node to a goal node, if one exists. In A* search, an admissible heuristic is one that never overestimates the distance remaining from the current node to the goal. Case-based Reasoning: Technique whereby "cases" similar to the current problem are retrieved and their "solutions" modified to work on the current problem. Data Mining: Also known as Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD) was been defined as "The nontrivial extraction of implicit, previously unknown, and potentially useful information from data" in Frawley and Piatetsky-Shapiro's overview. It uses machine learning, statistical and visualization techniques to discover and present knowledge in a form which is easily comprehensible to humans. Fuzzy Logic: In Fuzzy Logic, truth values are real values in the closed interval [0..1]. The definitions of the boolean operators are extended to fit this continuous domain. By avoiding discrete truth-values, Fuzzy Logic avoids some of the problems inherent in either-or judgments and yields natural interpretations of utterances like "very hot". Fuzzy Logic has applications in control theory. Nonlinear Planning: A planning paradigm which does not enforce a total (linear) ordering on the components of a plan. Strong AI: Claim that computers can be made to actually think, just like human beings do. More precisely, the claim that there exists a class of computer programs, such that any implementation of such a program is really thinking. Validation: The process of confirming that one's model uses measureable inputs and produces output that can be used to make decisions about the real world. Verification: The process of confirming that an implemented model works as intended. Weak AI: Claim that computers are important tools in the modeling and simulation of human activity.Go Back Up