GCSE Computer Science (OCR)

Topic Summaries

ALGORITHMS AND PROGRAMMING: Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Expert systems (rule-based AI)

  • An expert system is a type of AI that uses a set of human-expert knowledge and rules to solve specific problems. Some expert systems also offer explanation facilities (i.e. telling the user why a conclusion was reached).
  • Expert systems are typically used in: 
    • Medical diagnosis (text-based or graphical)
    • Legal advice
    • Troubleshooting tech issues
Key component Function
Knowledge base Stores facts and expert knowledge about a specific topic (e.g. symptoms of diseases)
Rule base Contains IF–THEN rules that describe logical relationships (e.g. IF fever AND cough THEN flu)
Inference engine The “thinking” part: applies rules to the knowledge base to draw conclusions
User interface Allows the user to input data and receive answers

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