Artificial Intelligence (AI) Assignment
1. Using the Internet to help you, provide a brief definition/description of the
following A.I. concepts:
i. Turing Test
ii. Expert System (for fun try http://www.smalltime.com/dictator.html)
iii. Neural Network
2. Joseph Weisenbaum of MIT created a program he called “Eliza” in 1965.
The purpose of this program was to mimic human behaviour in a
simulated conversation between an actual human and a computer.
Below are three web links to sites that run variations of the original Eliza
Program. Your task is to visit each of these sites and try to rank which of
these computer programs would be most likely to pass the Turing Test.
Respond to each simulation with the same/similar series of questions and
answers. Then try to determine at which point it was obvious that you
were not actually communicating with a person. Record your data in the
table below.
i. Dr. Web: http://www.parnasse.com/drwww.shtml
ii. Eliza ‘A’: http://www-ai.ijs.si/eliza/eliza.html
iii. Eliza ‘B’ http://www.manifestation.com/neurotoys/eliza.php3
iv. Frank click here
Rank
Program
# of questions
it took to determine it
wasn’t a real person?
# of seconds it took to
determine it wasn’t a
real person?
1
2
3
4
3. In 1990 Dr. Hugh Loebner, a New York City Philanthropist, pledged a
Grand Prize of $100,000 for the first computer whose responses were
indistinguishable from a human's. Each year a Turing Test contest is run
by the University of Cambridge and an annual Loebner Prize of $2000 is
awarded to the most human computer. To date no computer has ever
successfully won the grand prize. Your task is to visit the following site:
http://www.loebner.net/Prizef/loebner-prize.html and pick one of the past
$2000 Loebner winners. Based on the winner you selected you are to
provide a brief summary in point form of the various features of that
particular program (i.e., what was so special about it that allowed it to win
the $2000 prize?)
4. Video Game Analysis: Certainly some of the biggest inroads to A.I. have
come from video game designers. You are to find internet based
information on a computer game that you have tried or would like to try.
You should then:
i. include some screen shots and a brief summary of the game
ii. make a list of the qualities that make this game realistic or
human from an AI perspective. Be sure to include both the
physical (e.g., reflexes, agility) and logic (e.g., reasoning ,
intuition) in you analysis of how the programmers
endeavoured to build A.I. into their design?
5. There is great debate still about whether or not humans should try to give
machines the power of intelligence. Movies like Wargames, The Matrix
and The Terminator paint a very bleak picture. But those that support the
quest for A.I. argue that it is essential for our continued growth as the
human race. Using the plot line of the movie and your own experience as
a context, write a one page (200 word) commentary in response to the
following quote.
“…since we do not now have any ways of making computers
wise, we ought not now give computers tasks that demand
wisdom.”
Joseph Weisenbaum – Computer Power and Human Reason
Your discussion should focus around whether you agree or disagree with
Weisenbaum’s quote. In either case defend your response with movie and
real world examples. You might consider some of the benefits that A.I. has
already had on our daily lives, as well as its potential downfalls.