This is the start of a simple glossary of short definitions for AI

terminology. The purpose is not to present the gorey details, but

give ageneral idea.

A*:
A search algorithm to find the shortest path through a search
space to a goal state using a heuristic. See 'search',
'problem space', 'Admissibility', and 'heuristic'.

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.

Agent:
"Anything that can can be viewed a perceiving its environment
through sensors and acting upon that environment through
effectors." [Russel, Norvig 1995]

ai:
1. 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.) 2. An ancient canaanite city that was
occupied by the Israelites and is mentioned in the bible as
well as in other ancient texts. (thanks to Omri Safren)

Alpha-Beta Pruning:
A method of limiting search in the MiniMax algorithm. The
coolest thing you learn in an undergraduate course. If done
optimally, it reduces the branching factor from B to the
square root of B.

Animat Approach:
The design and study of simulated animals or adaptive real robots
inspired by animals. (From www-poleia.lip6.fr/ANIMATLAB - click on
"English page")

Backward Chaining:
In a logic system, reasoning from a query to the data. See
Forward chaining.

Belief Network (also Bayesian Network):

A mechanism for representing probabilistic knowledge.
Inference algorithms in belief networks use the structure of
the network to generate inferences effeciently (compared to
joint probability distributions over all the variables).

Breadth-first Search:
An uninformed search algorithm where the shallowest node in
the search tree is expanded first.

Case-based Reasoning:
Technique whereby "cases" similar to the current problem are
retrieved and their "solutions" modified to work on the current
problem.
Closed World Assumption:
The assumption that if a system has no knowledge about a
query, it is false.

Computational Linguistics:
The branch of AI that deals with understanding human language. Also
called natural language processing.

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.

Depth-first Search:
An uninformed search algorithm, where the deepest non-terminal
node is expanded first.

Embodiment:
An approach to Artificial Intelligence that maintains that the
only way to create general intelligence is to use programs
with 'bodies' in the real world (i.e. robots). It is an
extreme form of Situatedness, first and most strongly put
forth by Rod Brooks at MIT.

Evaluation Function:
A function applied to a game state to generate a guess as to
who is winning. Used by Minimax when the game tree is too
large to be searched exhaustively.

Forward Chaining:
In a logic system, reasoning from facts to conclusions. See
Backward Chaining

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.

Generate and Test:

The basic model for performing search in any search space.
"The purest form of `generate and test' is: 1. generate all
the possible [options] that I would even remotely consider
taking next, 2. test each [option] in the generated set to
filter out bad ones, and possibly to prioritize the rest. How
much you move away from this "pure" form depends on how much
of the testing you try to move into the generation stage.
What we often strive for in intelligent systems is:
1. generate only the most appropriate action 2. no testing is
needed But what we usually end up with is: 1. generate only
the best candidates (moving some of the testing conditions
into the generator), 2. perform a more strenuous test on the
 small set of generated actions, for a final selection"
-Randolph_M._Jones <rjones@colby.edu>

Heuristic:
The dictionary defines it as a method that serves as an aid to
problem solving. It is sometimes defined as any 'rule of
thumb'. Technically, a heuristic is a function that takes a
state as input and outputs a value for that state- often as a
guess of how far away that state is from the goal state. See
also: Admissibility, Search.

Information Extraction:
Getting computer-understandable information from human-readable
(ie natural language) documents.

Iterative Deepening:
An uninformed search that combines good properties of
Depth-fisrt and Breadth-first search.

Iterative Deepening A*:

The ideas of iterative deepening applied to A*.

Language Acquisition:
A relatively new sub-branch of AI; traditionally computational
linguists tried to make computers understand human language by
giving the computer grammar rules. Language acquisition is a
technique for the computer to generate the grammar rules itself.

Machine Learning:
A field of AI concerned with programs that learn. It includes
Reinforcement Learning and Neural Networks among many other
fields.

MiniMax:
An algorithm for game playing in games with perfect
information. See alpha-beta pruning.

Modus Ponens:
An inference rule that says: if you know x and you know that
'If x is true then y is true' then you can conclude y.

Nonlinear Planning:
A planning paradigm which does not enforce a total (linear)
ordering on the components of a plan.

Natural Language (NL):

Evolved languages that humans use to communicate with one another.

Natural Language Queries:

Using human language to get information from a database.

Partial Order Planner:

A planner that only orders steps that need to be ordered, and
leaves unordered any steps that can be done in any order.

Planning:
A field of AI concerned with systems that constuct sequences
of actions to acheive goals in real-world-like environments.
Problem Space (also State Space):
The formulation of an AI problem into states and operators.
There is usually a start state and a goal state. The problem
space is searched to find a solution.

Search:
The finding of a path from a start state to a goal state. See
'Admissibility', 'Problem Space', and 'Heuristic'.

Situatedness:
The property of an AI program being located in an environment
that it senses. Via its actions, the program can select its
sensation input, as well as change its environment.
Situatedness is often considered necessary in the Animat
approach. Some researchers claim that situatedness is key to
understanding general intelligence. (see Embodiment)

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.

Unification:
The process of finding a substitution (an assignment of
constants and variables to variables) that makes two logical
statements look the same.

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.