Neural Agents
What are Neural Agents?
In the late 1990’s, the technological world was buzzing with excitement about new technology
called “neural agents.” It was said that they were going to have the potential to revolutionize the IT
world and change the way that people do business through the use of artificial intelligence. Commonly
referred to as “neugents”, neural agents are a type of artificial intelligence software that is a hybrid of
neural networks and other artificial intelligence technologies developed from intelligent agents1. These
intelligent agents are flexible computer systems that possess the ability to act independently in order to
meet a set of goals. From these intelligent agents developed neural networks, artificial technologies that
mimic the properties of biological neurons by “learning” patterns derived from test data.
Neugents are “small pieces of software code distributed throughout a network2. They are first
trained on a body of test data, through which the technology “learns” to recognize patterns or
characteristics of test data1. Neugents are then able to analyze the real data through knowledge
acquired from the test data about how hundreds of operating variables and action-yield relationships
change based on the observed test data3. Neugents can continue learning from the patterns observed
in the real data as time progresses. Due to their ‘learning” ability, neugents are often used in a technical
or a decision making context.
1
Mario Apicella “CA’s Neugents aims to Make IT Infrastructure Smarter” (ENT 1999)
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/94511/neugents_adds_intelligence_apps/
2
Wylie Wong “CA Builds Artificial Intelligence into Software “ (CNET News 2000)
http://news.cnet.com/CA-builds-artificial-intelligence-into-software/2100-1001_3-239064.html
3
Maryann Lawlor. " Data-Sifting Intelligent Agents Nourish Virtual Environments". (AFCEA, 1999),
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=813&print=yes.
Technically, neugents learn to associate patterns of change with changes in system
performance, which allows the system to alert the user when they system approaches maximum levels
of operating performance that might compromise an entire operating system.
Uses of Neugents
Neugents can be used to help organizations and businesses with decision making, due to their
ability to uncover relationships between variables that may not have been initially apparent4. These
patterns and relationships identified by neugents can be used to help companies increase profits once
decision makers within an organization can understand the variables that affect their revenue growth5.
For example, one company used neugents to help increase profits during slow periods at a racetrack by
analyzing factors affecting attendance during a designated time periods. These influences included
types of races, jockeys, times of the day when races were viewed, weather, days of the week, and
competing sporting events. It was expected that A-class races drew the most people because these
races had the best horses and jockeys6. While this did turn out to be true, neugents revealed that
people were betting more money at B- and C- class races because odds were better that they might
win6. Based on this information, the company was able to adjust race schedules and make concessions
around attendance and profit per race class.
Neugents are an important part of the information age, where companies no longer just need
raw data, but also need to get the right information quickly and efficiently for optimum decision
making4. Neugents speed up response time, which is crucial as new technology outpaces our ability to
4
Mario Apicella “CA’s Neugents aims to Make IT Infrastructure Smarter” (ENT 1999)
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/94511/neugents_adds_intelligence_apps/
5
Mario Apicella “Neugents Adds Intelligence to Apps “ (Computerworld 2000)
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/94511/neugents_adds_intelligence_apps/
6
Maryann Lawlor. " Data-Sifting Intelligent Agents Nourish Virtual Environments". (AFCEA, 1999),
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=813&print=yes.
respond to it. For examples, DoS, or Denial of Services attacks are explicit attacks by hackers that shut
down a computer service to all of its intended users7. Neugents can be used to observe patterns in data
regarding DoS attacks and quickly provide IT consultants with information that will allow them to more
efficiently predict and prevent DoS attacks8. Neugents may serve as a substitute for technical personnel
in some cases, due to the fact that neugents can monitor a system for problems without getting tired or
bored as a human would.
History of Neugents
While neural network technology had been around for a while before the development of
neural agents, neugents differ because they can be applied to different situations, instead of working in
only one way for each application8. Neugent development began with a company called Computer
Associates International Inc8. Computer Associates launched neugents as part of a program called
Unicenter The Next Generation in December of 19988. Unicenter TNG is a management software used
for network operations9. After this software was introduced, CA incorporated neugents into the Jasmine
The Next Generation program10. The most recent version of Jasmine, Jasmin II, is an e-commerce
software package9.
Specific Examples of Neugents
Neugents have since been applied in numerous industrial, medical, entertainment, and
commercial settings. Industrial applications include manufacturing, inventory management, and air
7
Mario Apicella “CA’s Neugents aims to Make IT Infrastructure Smarter” (ENT 1999)
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/94511/neugents_adds_intelligence_apps/
8
Wylie Wong “CA Builds Artificial Intelligence into Software “ (CNET News 2000)
http://news.cnet.com/CA-builds-artificial-intelligence-into-software/2100-1001_3-239064.html
9
Maryann Lawlor. " Data-Sifting Intelligent Agents Nourish Virtual Environments". (AFCEA, 1999),
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=813&print=yes.
traffic control applications, while the entertainment industry frequently uses neugents in amusement
parks and video gaming.
Applications of Neural Agents in Medical Technology
A Neural Agent’s ability to process many different data at the same time and recognize patterns
makes it extremely valuable to the medical field and industry. The nature of medicine is such that a
diagnosis requires a careful examination and analysis of multiple data points relating to a malady,
including historical reactions to drugs or treatments and symptoms of a disease of illness.
Diagnosis software is an area where Neugents could potentially be incorporated. Their ability to
process historical data regarding patient history could be incorporated into software that would be able
to see hard to recognize patterns and make diagnoses that Doctors might otherwise miss.10
Neural Agents could even be used in patient monitoring equipment to recognize patterns
relating to early signs of cardiac arrest, seizure, and a multitude of other potentially harmful
complications and syndromes before they occur.11 This technology could reduce hospital deaths and
increase the level of patient care available.
An additional use of neural agents is in prosthetic limb technology.12 Intelligent prosthetic limbs
require the ability to analyze the external environment and change in order to act as if it were an actual
limb. One intelligent leg can even analyze data provided by the sound of the other limbs shoe to
accurately mimic movement.13 This technology plays a critical role in creating the most realistic
prosthetic limbs to increase the mobility and quality of life for individuals with missing limbs.
Commercial Applications of Neugents
10
Harleen Kaur and Siri Krishan Wasan, “Empirical Study on Applications of Data Mining Techniques in Healthcare”
Journal of Computer Science 2, no. 2 (2006): 196-200.
11
Ibid
12
Ralph Stair and George Reynolds, Fundamentals of Information Systems (Cengage Learning, 2009) Page 307-08
13
Ibid Page 307
Neugents have potential uses in a multitude of areas in commerce, most notably in business
process management and E-commerce.
In E-commerce the Neugent can potentially be used to analyze information regarding credit card
charges to detect fraud, as well as analyze buying patterns to build a profile of an online consumer that
can be targeted by a company’s marketing department. Neugent technology can be incorporated in
creating a model to determine if a series of charges to a credit card is fraudulent, or rather the chance
that the series of transactions are fraudulent.14
Neugents can also be incorporated into software that is used to predict performance bottlenecks on performance nodes. This information will allow e-commerce sites to predict website failures
before they occur and take pre-emptive measures to ensure an uninterrupted connection to their
website.15
Additionally, Neugents are being incorporated into information systems of hotels to determine
the needs of customers. For example, it predicts when new pillows will be needed and orders them so
that when the anticipated need arrives, the hotel can better satisfy the needs of the consumer.16 This
application is an example of how Neugents can generate value for the customer of commercial
businesses, and as you can imagine
Military and Security Applications of Neugents
Neugents are applicable to military and security functions and are used widely among various
government organizations.
The NSA uses Neugents to break code and perform cryptographic analysis.17 The United States
military has worked to incorporate Neugents into their analytic systems. The program can take
14
Sanjay Kumar (COO and President of CA, 2000), interviewed by Eugene Gruygo April 10, 2010 (in InfoWorld)
Ibid
16
Ibid
17
Maryann Lawlor. " Data-Sifting Intelligent Agents Nourish Virtual Environments". (AFCEA, 1999),
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=813&print=yes.
15
information from a variety of sources – unmanned aircrafts, satellites – and analyze that information to
track a potentially dangerous upsurge in troops or military equipement.18
Pros and Cons of Neugents
There are major pros associated with the Neugent technology. Some of these include the ease
of integration into existing software, the flexibility in analyzing data, and the ability to analyze nearly any
cause-effect relationship and make accurate predictions based on that analysis.19
There is a down side however. Neugents require a large adoption curve as their analysis is fine
tuned to recognize patterns.20 Additionally, the technology may give off false warnings if there are
patterns not learned in the training phase.21 For example, if the training period for Neugents was over
the summer, it is likely that the changing business environment of winter will produce patterns that the
technology reads as problems, but are in reality actually normal. Additionally, it is important to realize
that Neugents are not perfect artificial intelligence by any means; they make errors and need time to
adapt to changing environments.
The Future of Neugents
Neugents are a small code of data that are compatable with many different software
applications currently on the market. As a result of their ease of integration and their ability to analyze
data, Neugents have a wide range of future applications ranging from business to healthcare.
18
Maryann Lawlor. " Data-Sifting Intelligent Agents Nourish Virtual Environments". (AFCEA, 1999),
http://www.afcea.org/signal/articles/anmviewer.asp?a=813&print=yes.
19
Maria Apicella. "Neugents add Intelligence to Apps ". (ComputerWorld, 2000),
http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/94511/neugents_adds_intelligence_apps/.
20
Scott Bekker, “CA's Neugents Aims to Make IT Infrastructure Smarter”. (CBS Business News, 1999).
21
Ibid