Managing Uncertainty in Expert Systems

Book excerpt: A study of using probability to manage uncertainty in expert systems is presented. The study begins with a comprehensive summary of the literature on applying numeric techniques to manage uncertainty in expert systems. In addition to probability, fuzzy sets, certainty factors, and belief functions are addressed. basic principles and rules of information combination for each technique are discussed. The Lindley scoring rule argument for why probability is mathematically techniques is reviewed. The issues why using probability is considered to be a hindrance to managing uncertainty in expert systems are also reviewed. A simple expert system is developed using a state of the art expert system building tool called ALTERID. ALTERID is unique in that it unifies logical and probabilistic inference. This simple expert system is used to explore how probability theory can be used to manage the uncertainty in expert systems. The simple ALTERID based expert system is also used to evaluate the aforementioned issues for using probability to manage uncertainty in expert systems. Keywords: artificial intelligence Bayes theorem; decision analysis; theses.