AI faces fundamental tensions—central challenges not all solvable, but essential when designing intelligent agents.
Finite compute, memory, speed—yet many AI problems are computationally intractable. How to get near real-time performance?
Learn moreComputation is local; most AI problems have global constraints. How do agents address global problems with only local computation?
Learn moreLogic is deductive; many problems are abductive (best explanation) or inductive (learning). How do we bridge the gap?
Learn moreThe world is dynamic; knowledge is limited. Agents start with what they know. How can they address genuinely new problems?
Learn moreReasoning and learning are hard; explanation adds complexity. How can an agent explain or justify its decisions?
Learn moreAI agents have bounded capabilities. Understanding these limits helps design systems that work within them.
Processing speed, memory, resources are finite.
Cannot perceive everything in the world.
Cannot focus on everything at once.
Computational logic is fundamentally deductive.
Agent's knowledge of the world is incomplete.
How can AI agents with such bounded rationality address open-ended problems in the world?
Systems like Watson (Jeopardy) illustrate three fundamental processes that work together.
We learn → reason; reasoning yields learning; both read from and write to memory.
Understanding/generating language, decisions, inferences.
Acquiring and storing knowledge from answers.
Storing learned knowledge; providing access for reasoning.
Together, reasoning + learning + memory = deliberation. One part of the agent architecture—alongside reaction and metacognition.
Two spectrums: thinking vs. acting, and humanly vs. rationally. Hover each quadrant to explore.
KBAI & Cognitive Systems → human side (thinking & acting humanly)
The course subtitle breaks down as:
Human-like intelligence. Goal: human-level, human-like intelligence.
Multiple interacting components: learning, reasoning, memory.
Human-level intelligence through component interaction.
A cognitive system is situated in the world—receives percepts and produces actions. How do we map percepts → actions?
Direct mapping. No planning; purely reactive.
Reason about world; form plans. Learning, reasoning, memory.
Reason about the internal mental world; repair & reflect.
Written in the 1930s—the most widespread, reliable test of general human intelligence.