AI FUNDAMENTALS

Definition:
It is a branch of computer science by which we can create intelligent machines which can behave
like a human, think like humans, and able to make decisions.

Goals of Artificial Intelligence

1. Replicate human intelligence

2. Solve Knowledge-intensive tasks
3. An intelligent connection of perception and action
4. Building a machine which can perform tasks that requires human intelligence such as:
o Proving a theorem
o Playing chess
o Plan some surgical operation
o Driving a car in traffic
5. Creating some system which can exhibit intelligent behavior, learn new things by itself,
demonstrate, explain, and can advise to its user.

Advantages of Artificial Intelligence:

Following are some main advantages of Artificial Intelligence:

o High Accuracy with less errors: AI machines or systems are prone to less errors and high
accuracy as it takes decisions as per pre-experience or information.
o High-Speed: AI systems can be of very high-speed and fast-decision making, because of that
AI systems can beat a chess champion in the Chess game.
o High reliability: AI machines are highly reliable and can perform the same action multiple
times with high accuracy.
o Useful for risky areas: AI machines can be helpful in situations such as defusing a bomb,
exploring the ocean floor, where to employ a human can be risky.
o Digital Assistant: AI can be very useful to provide digital assistant to the users such as AI
technology is currently used by various E-commerce websites to show the products as per
customer requirement.
 o Useful as a public utility: AI can be very useful for public utilities such as a self-driving car
which can make our journey safer and hassle-free, facial recognition for security purpose,
Natural language processing to communicate with the human in human-language, etc.

Disadvantages of Artificial Intelligence:

Every technology has some disadvantages, and the same goes for Artificial intelligence. Being so
advantageous technology still, it has some disadvantages which we need to keep in our mind while
creating an AI system. Following are the disadvantages of AI:

o High Cost: The hardware and software requirement of AI is very costly as it requires lots of
maintenance to meet current world requirements.
o Can't think out of the box: Even we are making smarter machines with AI, but still they
cannot work out of the box, as the robot will only do that work for which they are trained,
or programmed.
o No feelings and emotions: AI machines can be an outstanding performer, but still it does
not have the feeling so it cannot make any kind of emotional attachment with human, and
may sometime be harmful for users if the proper care is not taken.
o Increase dependency on machines: With the increment of technology, people are getting
more dependent on devices and hence they are losing their mental capabilities.
o No Original Creativity: As humans are so creative and can imagine some new ideas but still
AI machines cannot beat this power of human intelligence and cannot be creative and
imaginative.

Application of AI:
1. AI in Astronomy
o Artificial Intelligence can be very useful to solve complex universe problems. AI technology
can be helpful for understanding the universe such as how it works, origin, etc.

2. AI in Healthcare
o In the last, five to ten years, AI becoming more advantageous for the healthcare industry
and going to have a significant impact on this industry.
o Healthcare Industries are applying AI to make a better and faster diagnosis than humans. AI
can help doctors with diagnoses and can inform when patients are worsening so that
medical help can reach to the patient before hospitalization.
3. AI in Gaming
o AI can be used for gaming purpose. The AI machines can play strategic games like chess,
where the machine needs to think of a large number of possible places.

4. AI in Finance
o AI and finance industries are the best matches for each other. The finance industry is
implementing automation, chatbot, adaptive intelligence, algorithm trading, and machine
learning into financial processes.

5. AI in Data Security
o The security of data is crucial for every company and cyber-attacks are growing very rapidly
in the digital world. AI can be used to make your data more safe and secure. Some examples
such as AEG bot, AI2 Platform, are used to determine software bug and cyber-attacks in a
better way.

6. AI in Social Media
o Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat contain billions of user profiles,
which need to be stored and managed in a very efficient way. AI can organize and manage
massive amounts of data. AI can analyze lots of data to identify the latest trends, hashtag,
and requirement of different users.

7. AI in Travel & Transport

o AI is becoming highly demanding for travel industries. AI is capable of doing various travel
related works such as from making travel arrangement to suggesting the hotels, flights, and
best routes to the customers. Travel industries are using AI-powered chatbots which can
make human-like interaction with customers for better and fast response.

8. AI in Robotics:
o Artificial Intelligence has a remarkable role in Robotics. Usually, general robots are
programmed such that they can perform some repetitive task, but with the help of AI, we
can create intelligent robots which can perform tasks with their own experiences without
pre-programmed.
o Humanoid Robots are best examples for AI in robotics, recently the intelligent Humanoid
robot named as Erica and Sophia has been developed which can talk and behave like
humans.
9. AI in Entertainment
o We are currently using some AI based applications in our daily life with some entertainment
services such as Netflix or Amazon. With the help of ML/AI algorithms, these services show
the recommendations for programs or shows.

10. AI in Agriculture
o Agriculture is an area which requires various resources, labor, money, and time for best
result. Now a day's agriculture is becoming digital, and AI is emerging in this field.
Agriculture is applying AI as agriculture robotics, solid and crop monitoring, predictive
analysis. AI in agriculture can be very helpful for farmers.

11. AI in E-commerce
o AI is providing a competitive edge to the e-commerce industry, and it is becoming more
demanding in the e-commerce business. AI is helping shoppers to discover associated
products with recommended size, color, or even brand.

12. AI in education:
o AI can automate grading so that the tutor can have more time to teach. AI chatbot can
communicate with students as a teaching assistant.
o AI in the future can be work as a personal virtual tutor for students, which will be accessible
easily at any time and any place.

Types of Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial Intelligence can be divided in various types, there are mainly two types of main
categorization which are based on capabilities and based on functionally of AI. Following is flow
diagram which explain the types of AI.

AI type-1: Based on Capabilities

1. Weak AI or Narrow AI:
o Narrow AI is a type of AI which is able to perform a dedicated task with intelligence. The
most common and currently available AI is Narrow AI in the world of Artificial Intelligence.
o Narrow AI cannot perform beyond its field or limitations, as it is only trained for one specific
task. Hence it is also termed as weak AI. Narrow AI can fail in unpredictable ways if it goes
beyond its limits.
o Apple Siriis a good example of Narrow AI, but it operates with a limited pre-defined range of
functions.
o Some Examples of Narrow AI are playing chess, purchasing suggestions on e-commerce site,
self-driving cars, speech recognition, and image recognition.

2. General AI:
o General AI is a type of intelligence which could perform any intellectual task with efficiency
like a human.
o The idea behind the general AI to make such a system which could be smarter and think like
a human by its own.
o Currently, there is no such system exist which could come under general AI and can perform
any task as perfect as a human.
o The worldwide researchers are now focused on developing machines with General AI.
o As systems with general AI are still under research, and it will take lots of efforts and time to
develop such systems.

3. Super AI:
o Super AI is a level of Intelligence of Systems at which machines could surpass human
intelligence, and can perform any task better than human with cognitive properties. It is an
outcome of general AI.
o Some key characteristics of strong AI include capability include the ability to think, to
reason, solve the puzzle, make judgments, plan, learn, and communicate by its own.
o Super AI is still a hypothetical concept of Artificial Intelligence. Development of such systems
in real is still world changing task.

Artificial Intelligence type-2: Based on functionality

1. Reactive Machines
o Purely reactive machines are the most basic types of Artificial Intelligence.
o Such AI systems do not store memories or past experiences for future actions.
o These machines only focus on current scenarios and react on it as per possible best action.
o IBM's Deep Blue system is an example of reactive machines.
o Google's AlphaGo is also an example of reactive machines.

2. Limited Memory
o Limited memory machines can store past experiences or some data for a short period of
time.
o These machines can use stored data for a limited time period only.
o Self-driving cars are one of the best examples of Limited Memory systems. These cars can
store recent speed of nearby cars, the distance of other cars, speed limit, and other
information to navigate the road.

3. Theory of Mind
o Theory of Mind AI should understand the human emotions, people, beliefs, and be able to
interact socially like humans.
o This type of AI machines are still not developed, but researchers are making lots of efforts
and improvement for developing such AI machines.

4. Self-Awareness
o Self-awareness AI is the future of Artificial Intelligence. These machines will be super
intelligent, and will have their own consciousness, sentiments, and self-awareness.
o These machines will be smarter than human mind.
o Self-Awareness AI does not exist in reality still and it is a hypothetical concept.
o

Types of AI Agents
Agents can be grouped into five classes based on their degree of perceived intelligence and
capability. All these agents can improve their performance and generate better action over the
time. These are given below:

o Simple Reflex Agent

o Model-based reflex agent
o Goal-based agents
 o Utility-based agent
o Learning agent

1. Simple Reflex agent:

o The Simple reflex agents are the simplest agents. These agents take decisions on the basis of
the current percepts and ignore the rest of the percept history.
o These agents only succeed in the fully observable environment.
o The Simple reflex agent does not consider any part of percepts history during their decision
and action process.
o The Simple reflex agent works on Condition-action rule, which means it maps the current
state to action. Such as a Room Cleaner agent, it works only if there is dirt in the room.
o Problems for the simple reflex agent design approach:
o They have very limited intelligence
o They do not have knowledge of non-perceptual parts of the current state
o Mostly too big to generate and to store.
o Not adaptive to changes in the environment.

2. Model-based reflex agent

o The Model-based agent can work in a partially observable environment, and track the
situation.
o A model-based agent has two important factors:
o Model: It is knowledge about "how things happen in the world," so it is called a
Model-based agent.
o Internal State: It is a representation of the current state based on percept history.
 o These agents have the model, "which is knowledge of the world" and based on the model
they perform actions.
o Updating the agent state requires information about:

o How the world evolves

o How the agent's action affects the world.

3. Goal-based agents

o The knowledge of the current state environment is not always sufficient to decide for an
agent to what to do.
o The agent needs to know its goal which describes desirable situations.
o Goal-based agents expand the capabilities of the model-based agent by having the "goal"
information.
o They choose an action, so that they can achieve the goal.
o These agents may have to consider a long sequence of possible actions before deciding
whether the goal is achieved or not. Such considerations of different scenario are called
searching and planning, which makes an agent proactive.
4. Utility-based agents

o These agents are similar to the goal-based agent but provide an extra component of utility
measurement which makes them different by providing a measure of success at a given
state.
o Utility-based agent act based not only goals but also the best way to achieve the goal.
o The Utility-based agent is useful when there are multiple possible alternatives, and an agent
has to choose in order to perform the best action.
o The utility function maps each state to a real number to check how efficiently each action
achieves the goals.

5. Learning Agents

o A learning agent in AI is the type of agent which can learn from its past experiences, or it has
learning capabilities.
 o It starts to act with basic knowledge and then able to act and adapt automatically through
learning.
o A learning agent has mainly four conceptual components, which are:

1. Learning element: It is responsible for making improvements by learning from

environment
2. Critic: Learning element takes feedback from critic which describes that how well the
agent is doing with respect to a fixed performance standard.
3. Performance element: It is responsible for selecting external action
4. Problem generator: This component is responsible for suggesting actions that will
lead to new and informative experiences.
o Hence, learning agents are able to learn, analyze performance, and look for new ways to
improve the performance.

What is an Agent?
An agent can be anything that perceiveits environment through sensors and act upon that
environment through actuators. An Agent runs in the cycle of perceiving, thinking, and acting.

Agent Environment in AI
An environment is everything in the world which surrounds the agent, but it is not a part of an
agent itself. An environment can be described as a situation in which an agent is present.

Features of Environment
As per Russell and Norvig, an environment can have various features from the point of view of an
agent:
 1. Fully observable vs Partially Observable
2. Static vs Dynamic
3. Discrete vs Continuous
4. Deterministic vs Stochastic
5. Single-agent vs Multi-agent
6. Episodic vs sequential
7. Known vs Unknown
8. Accessible vs Inaccessible

1. Fully observable vs Partially Observable:

o If an agent sensor can sense or access the complete state of an environment at each point
of time then it is a fully observable environment, else it is partially observable.
o A fully observable environment is easy as there is no need to maintain the internal state to
keep track history of the world.
o An agent with no sensors in all environments then such an environment is called
as unobservable.

2. Deterministic vs Stochastic:

o If an agent's current state and selected action can completely determine the next state of
the environment, then such environment is called a deterministic environment.
o A stochastic environment is random in nature and cannot be determined completely by an
agent.
o In a deterministic, fully observable environment, agent does not need to worry about
uncertainty.

3. Episodic vs Sequential:

o In an episodic environment, there is a series of one-shot actions, and only the current
percept is required for the action.
o However, in Sequential environment, an agent requires memory of past actions to
determine the next best actions.

4. Single-agent vs Multi-agent
 o If only one agent is involved in an environment, and operating by itself then such an
environment is called single agent environment.
o However, if multiple agents are operating in an environment, then such an environment is
called a multi-agent environment.
o The agent design problems in the multi-agent environment are different from single agent
environment.

5. Static vs Dynamic:

o If the environment can change itself while an agent is deliberating then such environment is
called a dynamic environment else it is called a static environment.
o Static environments are easy to deal because an agent does not need to continue looking at
the world while deciding for an action.
o However for dynamic environment, agents need to keep looking at the world at each action.
o Taxi driving is an example of a dynamic environment whereas Crossword puzzles are an
example of a static environment.

6. Discrete vs Continuous:

o If in an environment there are a finite number of percepts and actions that can be
performed within it, then such an environment is called a discrete environment else it is
called continuous environment.
o A chess game comes under discrete environment as there is a finite number of moves that
can be performed.
o A self-driving car is an example of a continuous environment.

7. Known vs Unknown

o Known and unknown are not actually a feature of an environment, but it is an agent's state
of knowledge to perform an action.
o In a known environment, the results for all actions are known to the agent. While in
unknown environment, agent needs to learn how it works in order to perform an action.
o It is quite possible that a known environment to be partially observable and an Unknown
environment to be fully observable.

8. Accessible vs Inaccessible
 o If an agent can obtain complete and accurate information about the state's environment,
then such an environment is called an Accessible environment else it is called inaccessible.
o An empty room whose state can be defined by its temperature is an example of an
accessible environment.
o Information about an event on earth is an example of Inaccessible environment.
o

Turing Test in AI
In 1950, Alan Turing introduced a test to check whether a machine can think like a human or not,
this test is known as the Turing Test. In this test, Turing proposed that the computer can be said to
be an intelligent if it can mimic human response under specific conditions.

Turing Test was introduced by Turing in his 1950 paper, "Computing Machinery and Intelligence,"
which considered the question, "Can Machine think?"

The Turing test is based on a party game "Imitation game," with some modifications. This game
involves three players in which one player is Computer, another player is human responder, and
the third player is a human Interrogator, who is isolated from other two players and his job is to
find that which player is machine among two of them.

Consider, Player A is a computer, Player B is human, and Player C is an interrogator. Interrogator is

aware that one of them is machine, but he needs to identify this on the basis of questions and their
responses.

The conversation between all players is via keyboard and screen so the result would not depend on
the machine's ability to convert words as speech.

The questions and answers can be like:

Interrogator: Are you a computer?

Player A (Computer): No

Interrogator: Multiply two large numbers such as (256896489*456725896)

Player A: Long pause and give the wrong answer.

In this game, if an interrogator would not be able to identify which is a machine and which is
human, then the computer passes the test successfully, and the machine is said to be intelligent
and can think like a human.

Chatbots to attempt the Turing test:

ELIZA: ELIZA was a Natural language processing computer program created by Joseph Weizenbaum.
It was created to demonstrate the ability of communication between machine and humans. It was
one of the first chatterbots, which has attempted the Turing Test.

Problem-solving agents:
In Artificial Intelligence, Search techniques are universal problem-solving methods. Rational
agents or Problem-solving agents in AI mostly used these search strategies or algorithms to solve a
specific problem and provide the best result. Problem-solving agents are the goal-based agents and
use atomic representation. In this topic, we will learn various problem-solving search algorithms.

Search Algorithm Terminologies:

o Search: Searching is a step-by-step procedure to solve a search-problem in a given search

space. A search problem can have three main factors:

1. Search Space: Search space represents a set of possible solutions, which a system
may have.
2. Start State: It is a state from where agent begins the search.
3. Goal test: It is a function which observe the current state and returns whether the
goal state is achieved or not.
o Search tree: A tree representation of search problem is called Search tree. The root of the
search tree is the root node which is corresponding to the initial state.
o Actions: It gives the description of all the available actions to the agent.
o Transition model: A description of what each action do, can be represented as a transition
model.
o Path Cost: It is a function which assigns a numeric cost to each path.
o Solution: It is an action sequence which leads from the start node to the goal node.
o Optimal Solution: If a solution has the lowest cost among all solutions.
Properties of Search Algorithms:
Following are the four essential properties of search algorithms to compare the efficiency of these
algorithms:

Completeness: A search algorithm is said to be complete if it guarantees to return a solution if at

least any solution exists for any random input.

Optimality: If a solution found for an algorithm is guaranteed to be the best solution (lowest path
cost) among all other solutions, then such a solution for is said to be an optimal solution.

Time Complexity: Time complexity is a measure of time for an algorithm to complete its task.

Space Complexity: It is the maximum storage space required at any point during the search, as the
complexity of the problem.

Types of search algorithms

Based on the search problems we can classify the search algorithms into uninformed (Blind
search) search and informed search (Heuristic search) algorithms.

Uninformed/Blind Search:
The uninformed search does not contain any domain knowledge such as closeness, the location of
the goal. It operates in a brute-force way as it only includes information about how to traverse the
tree and how to identify leaf and goal nodes. Uninformed search applies a way in which search tree
is searched without any information about the search space like initial state operators and test for
the goal, so it is also called blind search. It examines each node of the tree until it achieves the goal
node.

It can be divided into five main types:

 o Breadth-first search
o Uniform cost search
o Depth-first search
o Iterative deepening depth-first search
o Bidirectional Search

Informed Search
Informed search algorithms use domain knowledge. In an informed search, problem information is
available which can guide the search. Informed search strategies can find a solution more efficiently
than an uninformed search strategy. Informed search is also called a Heuristic search.

A heuristic is a way which might not always be guaranteed for best solutions but guaranteed to find
a good solution in reasonable time.

Informed search can solve much complex problem which could not be solved in another way.

An example of informed search algorithms is a traveling salesman problem.

1. Greedy Search
2. A* Search

Uninformed Search Algorithms

Uninformed search is a class of general-purpose search algorithms which operates in brute force-
way. Uninformed search algorithms do not have additional information about state or search space
other than how to traverse the tree, so it is also called blind search.

Following are the various types of uninformed search algorithms:

1. Breadth-first Search
2. Depth-first Search
3. Depth-limited Search
4. Iterative deepening depth-first search
5. Uniform cost search
6. Bidirectional Search

1. Breadth-first Search:

o Breadth-first search is the most common search strategy for traversing a tree or graph. This
algorithm searches breadthwise in a tree or graph, so it is called breadth-first search.
 o BFS algorithm starts searching from the root node of the tree and expands all successor
node at the current level before moving to nodes of next level.
o The breadth-first search algorithm is an example of a general-graph search algorithm.
o Breadth-first search implemented using FIFO queue data structure.

Advantages:

o BFS will provide a solution if any solution exists.

o If there are more than one solutions for a given problem, then BFS will provide the minimal
solution which requires the least number of steps.

Disadvantages:

o It requires lots of memory since each level of the tree must be saved into memory to expand
the next level.
o BFS needs lots of time if the solution is far away from the root node.

Example:
In the below tree structure, we have shown the traversing of the tree using BFS algorithm from the
root node S to goal node K. BFS search algorithm traverse in layers, so it will follow the path which
is shown by the dotted arrow, and the traversed path will be:

1. S---> A--->B---->C--->D---->G--->H--->E---->F---->I---->K

Time Complexity: Time Complexity of BFS algorithm can be obtained by the number of nodes
traversed in BFS until the shallowest Node. Where the d= depth of shallowest solution and b is a
node at every state.

T (b) = 1+b2+b3+.......+ bd= O (bd)

Space Complexity: Space complexity of BFS algorithm is given by the Memory size of frontier which
is O(bd).

Completeness: BFS is complete, which means if the shallowest goal node is at some finite depth,
then BFS will find a solution.

Optimality: BFS is optimal if path cost is a non-decreasing function of the depth of the node.

2. Depth-first Search

o Depth-first search isa recursive algorithm for traversing a tree or graph data structure.
o It is called the depth-first search because it starts from the root node and follows each path
to its greatest depth node before moving to the next path.
o DFS uses a stack data structure for its implementation.
o The process of the DFS algorithm is similar to the BFS algorithm.

Advantage:

o DFS requires very less memory as it only needs to store a stack of the nodes on the path
from root node to the current node.
o It takes less time to reach to the goal node than BFS algorithm (if it traverses in the right
path).

Disadvantage:

o There is the possibility that many states keep re-occurring, and there is no guarantee of
finding the solution.
o DFS algorithm goes for deep down searching and sometime it may go to the infinite loop.

Example:

In the below search tree, we have shown the flow of depth-first search, and it will follow the order
as:

Root node--->Left node ----> right node.

It will start searching from root node S, and traverse A, then B, then D and E, after traversing E, it
will backtrack the tree as E has no other successor and still goal node is not found. After
backtracking it will traverse node C and then G, and here it will terminate as it found goal node.
Completeness: DFS search algorithm is complete within finite state space as it will expand every
node within a limited search tree.

Time Complexity: Time complexity of DFS will be equivalent to the node traversed by the
algorithm. It is given by:

T(n)= 1+ n2+ n3 +.........+ nm=O(nm)

Where, m= maximum depth of any node and this can be much larger than d (Shallowest solution
depth)

Space Complexity: DFS algorithm needs to store only single path from the root node, hence space
complexity of DFS is equivalent to the size of the fringe set, which is O(bm).

Optimal: DFS search algorithm is non-optimal, as it may generate a large number of steps or high
cost to reach to the goal node.

3. Depth-Limited Search Algorithm:

A depth-limited search algorithm is similar to depth-first search with a predetermined limit. Depth-
limited search can solve the drawback of the infinite path in the Depth-first search. In this
algorithm, the node at the depth limit will treat as it has no successor nodes further.

Depth-limited search can be terminated with two Conditions of failure:

o Standard failure value: It indicates that problem does not have any solution.
o Cutoff failure value: It defines no solution for the problem within a given depth limit.
Advantages:

Depth-limited search is Memory efficient.

Disadvantages:

o Depth-limited search also has a disadvantage of incompleteness.

o It may not be optimal if the problem has more than one solution.

Example:

Completeness: DLS search algorithm is complete if the solution is above the depth-limit.

Time Complexity: Time complexity of DLS algorithm is O(bℓ).

Space Complexity: Space complexity of DLS algorithm is O(b×ℓ).

Optimal: Depth-limited search can be viewed as a special case of DFS, and it is also not optimal
even if ℓ>d.

4. Uniform-cost Search Algorithm:

Uniform-cost search is a searching algorithm used for traversing a weighted tree
or graph. This algorithm comes into play when a different cost is available for
each edge. The primary goal of the uniform-cost search is to find a path to the
goal node which has the lowest cumulative cost. Uniform-cost search expands
nodes according to their path costs form the root node. It can be used to solve
any graph/tree where the optimal cost is in demand. A uniform-cost search
algorithm is implemented by the priority queue. It gives maximum priority to
the lowest cumulative cost. Uniform cost search is equivalent to BFS algorithm if
the path cost of all edges is the same.

Advantages:
 o Uniform cost search is optimal because at every state the path with the least
cost is chosen.

Disadvantages:

o It does not care about the number of steps involve in searching and only
concerned about path cost. Due to which this algorithm may be stuck in an
infinite loop.

Example:

Completeness:

Uniform-cost search is complete, such as if there is a solution, UCS will find it.

Time Complexity:

Let C* is Cost of the optimal solution, and ε is each step to get closer to the goal node. Then the
number of steps is = C*/ε+1. Here we have taken +1, as we start from state 0 and end to C*/ε.

Hence, the worst-case time complexity of Uniform-cost search isO(b1 + [C*/ε])/.

Space Complexity:

The same logic is for space complexity so, the worst-case space complexity of Uniform-cost search
is O(b1 + [C*/ε]).

Optimal:

Uniform-cost search is always optimal as it only selects a path with the lowest path cost.
5. Iterative deepening depth-first Search:
The iterative deepening algorithm is a combination of DFS and BFS algorithms. This search
algorithm finds out the best depth limit and does it by gradually increasing the limit until a goal is
found.

This algorithm performs depth-first search up to a certain "depth limit", and it keeps increasing the
depth limit after each iteration until the goal node is found.

This Search algorithm combines the benefits of Breadth-first search's fast search and depth-first
search's memory efficiency.

The iterative search algorithm is useful uninformed search when search space is large, and depth of
goal node is unknown.

Advantages:

o It combines the benefits of BFS and DFS search algorithm in terms of fast search and
memory efficiency.

Disadvantages:

o The main drawback of IDDFS is that it repeats all the work of the previous phase.

Example:

Following tree structure is showing the iterative deepening depth-first search. IDDFS algorithm
performs various iterations until it does not find the goal node. The iteration performed by the
algorithm is given as:

1'st Iteration-----> A
2'nd Iteration----> A, B, C
3'rd Iteration------>A, B, D, E, C, F, G
4'th Iteration------>A, B, D, H, I, E, C, F, K, G
In the fourth iteration, the algorithm will find the goal node.

Completeness:

This algorithm is complete is if the branching factor is finite.

Time Complexity:

Let's suppose b is the branching factor and depth is d then the worst-case time complexity is O(bd).

Space Complexity:

The space complexity of IDDFS will be O(bd).

Optimal:

IDDFS algorithm is optimal if path cost is a non- decreasing function of the depth of the node.

6. Bidirectional Search Algorithm:

Bidirectional search algorithm runs two simultaneous searches, one form initial state called as
forward-search and other from goal node called as backward-search, to find the goal node.
Bidirectional search replaces one single search graph with two small subgraphs in which one starts
the search from an initial vertex and other starts from goal vertex. The search stops when these
two graphs intersect each other.

Bidirectional search can use search techniques such as BFS, DFS, DLS, etc.

Advantages:

o Bidirectional search is fast.

o Bidirectional search requires less memory

Disadvantages:

o Implementation of the bidirectional search tree is difficult.

o In bidirectional search, one should know the goal state in advance.

Example:
In the below search tree, bidirectional search algorithm is applied. This algorithm divides one
graph/tree into two sub-graphs. It starts traversing from node 1 in the forward direction and starts
from goal node 16 in the backward direction.
The algorithm terminates at node 9 where two searches meet.

Completeness: Bidirectional Search is complete if we use BFS in both searches.

Time Complexity: Time complexity of bidirectional search using BFS is O(bd).

Space Complexity: Space complexity of bidirectional search is O(bd).

Optimal: Bidirectional search is Optimal.

Informed Search Algorithms:

The informed search algorithm is more useful for large search space. Informed search algorithm
uses the idea of heuristic, so it is also called Heuristic search.

Heuristics function: Heuristic is a function which is used in Informed Search, and it finds the most
promising path. It takes the current state of the agent as its input and produces the estimation of
how close agent is from the goal. The heuristic method, however, might not always give the best
solution, but it guaranteed to find a good solution in reasonable time. Heuristic function estimates
how close a state is to the goal. It is represented by h(n), and it calculates the cost of an optimal
path between the pair of states. The value of the heuristic function is always positive.

Admissibility of the heuristic function is given as:

1. h(n) <= h*(n)

Here h(n) is heuristic cost, and h*(n) is the estimated cost. Hence heuristic cost should be less
than or equal to the estimated cost.

In the informed search we will discuss two main algorithms which are given below:

o Best First Search Algorithm (Greedy search)

o A* Search Algorithm
1.) Best-first Search Algorithm (Greedy Search):

Greedy best-first search algorithm always selects the path which appears best at that moment. It is
the combination of depth-first search and breadth-first search algorithms. It uses the heuristic
function and search. Best-first search allows us to take the advantages of both algorithms. With the
help of best-first search, at each step, we can choose the most promising node. In the best first
search algorithm, we expand the node which is closest to the goal node and the closest cost is
estimated by heuristic function, i.e.

1. f(n)= g(n).

Were, h(n)= estimated cost from node n to the goal.

The greedy best first algorithm is implemented by the priority queue.

Best first search algorithm:

o Step 1: Place the starting node into the OPEN list.
o Step 2: If the OPEN list is empty, Stop and return failure.
o Step 3: Remove the node n, from the OPEN list which has the lowest value of h(n), and
places it in the CLOSED list.
o Step 4: Expand the node n, and generate the successors of node n.
o Step 5: Check each successor of node n, and find whether any node is a goal node or not. If
any successor node is goal node, then return success and terminate the search, else proceed
to Step 6.
o Step 6: For each successor node, algorithm checks for evaluation function f(n), and then
check if the node has been in either OPEN or CLOSED list. If the node has not been in both
list, then add it to the OPEN list.
o Step 7: Return to Step 2.

Advantages:
o Best first search can switch between BFS and DFS by gaining the advantages of both the
algorithms.
o This algorithm is more efficient than BFS and DFS algorithms.

Disadvantages:
o It can behave as an unguided depth-first search in the worst case scenario.
o It can get stuck in a loop as DFS.
o This algorithm is not optimal.
Example:

In this search example, we are using two lists which are OPEN and CLOSED Lists. Following are the
iteration for traversing the above example.

Expand the nodes of S and put in the CLOSED list

Initialization: Open [A, B], Closed [S]

Iteration 1: Open [A], Closed [S, B]

Iteration 2: Open [E, F, A], Closed [S, B]

: Open [E, A], Closed [S, B, F]

Iteration 3: Open [I, G, E, A], Closed [S, B, F]

: Open [I, E, A], Closed [S, B, F, G]

Hence the final solution path will be: S----> B----->F----> G

Time Complexity: The worst-case time complexity of Greedy best first search is O(bm).

Space Complexity: The worst-case space complexity of Greedy best first search is O(b m). Where, m
is the maximum depth of the search space.

Complete: Greedy best-first search is also incomplete, even if the given state space is finite.

Optimal: Greedy best first search algorithm is not optimal.

2.) A* Search Algorithm:

A* search is the most commonly known form of best-first search. It uses heuristic function h(n), and
cost to reach the node n from the start state g(n). It has combined features of UCS and greedy best-
first search, by which it solve the problem efficiently. A* search algorithm finds the shortest path
through the search space using the heuristic function. This search algorithm expands less search
tree and provides optimal result faster. A* algorithm is similar to UCS except that it uses g(n)+h(n)
instead of g(n).

In A* search algorithm, we use search heuristic as well as the cost to reach the node. Hence we can
combine both costs as following, and this sum is called as a fitness number.

Algorithm of A* search:
Step1: Place the starting node in the OPEN list.

Step 2: Check if the OPEN list is empty or not, if the list is empty then return failure and stops.

Step 3: Select the node from the OPEN list which has the smallest value of evaluation function
(g+h), if node n is goal node then return success and stop, otherwise

Step 4: Expand node n and generate all of its successors, and put n into the closed list. For each
successor n', check whether n' is already in the OPEN or CLOSED list, if not then compute evaluation
function for n' and place into Open list.

Step 5: Else if node n' is already in OPEN and CLOSED, then it should be attached to the back
pointer which reflects the lowest g(n') value.

Step 6: Return to Step 2.

Advantages:
o A* search algorithm is the best algorithm than other search algorithms.
 o A* search algorithm is optimal and complete.
o This algorithm can solve very complex problems.

Disadvantages:
o It does not always produce the shortest path as it mostly based on heuristics and
approximation.
o A* search algorithm has some complexity issues.
o The main drawback of A* is memory requirement as it keeps all generated nodes in the
memory, so it is not practical for various large-scale problems.

Example:
In this example, we will traverse the given graph using the A* algorithm. The heuristic value of all
states is given in the below table so we will calculate the f(n) of each state using the formula f(n)=
g(n) + h(n), where g(n) is the cost to reach any node from start state.
Here we will use OPEN and CLOSED list.

Solution:
Initialization: {(S, 5)}

Iteration1: {(S--> A, 4), (S-->G, 10)}

Iteration2: {(S--> A-->C, 4), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}

Iteration3: {(S--> A-->C--->G, 6), (S--> A-->C--->D, 11), (S--> A-->B, 7), (S-->G, 10)}

Iteration 4 will give the final result, as S--->A--->C--->G it provides the optimal path with cost 6.

Points to remember:

o A* algorithm returns the path which occurred first, and it does not search for all remaining
paths.
o The efficiency of A* algorithm depends on the quality of heuristic.
o A* algorithm expands all nodes which satisfy the condition f(n)<="" li="">

Complete: A* algorithm is complete as long as:

o Branching factor is finite.

o Cost at every action is fixed.

Optimal: A* search algorithm is optimal if it follows below two conditions:

o Admissible: the first condition requires for optimality is that h(n) should be an admissible
heuristic for A* tree search. An admissible heuristic is optimistic in nature.
o Consistency: Second required condition is consistency for only A* graph-search.

If the heuristic function is admissible, then A* tree search will always find the least cost path.
Time Complexity: The time complexity of A* search algorithm depends on heuristic function, and
the number of nodes expanded is exponential to the depth of solution d. So the time complexity is
O(b^d), where b is the branching factor.

Space Complexity: The space complexity of A* search algorithm is O(b^d)

AO* Algorithm:
The AO* algorithm is a knowledge-based search technique, meaning the start state and the goal
state is already defined, and the best path is found using heuristics. The time complexity of the
algorithm is significantly reduced due to the informed search technique.

Working of AO algorithm:
The AO* algorithm works on the formula given below:
f(n) = g(n) + h(n)
where,
 g(n): The actual cost of traversal from initial state to the current state.

 h(n): The estimated cost of traversal from the current state to the goal state.

 f(n): The actual cost of traversal from the initial state to the goal state.
Now, to get a better idea of the AO* algorithm lets take a look at an example.
Example-

Here, in the above example all numbers in brackets are the heuristic value i.e h(n). Each edge is
considered to have a value of 1 by default.

Step-1
Starting from node A, we first calculate the best path.
f(A-B) = g(B) + h(B) = 1+4= 5, where 1 is the default cost value of travelling from A to B and 4 is the
estimated cost from B to Goal state.
f(A-C-D) = g(C) + h(C) + g(D) + h(D) = 1+2+1+3 = 7, here we are calculating the path cost as both C
and D because they have the AND-Arc. The default cost value of travelling from A-C is 1, and from
A-D is 1, but the heuristic value given for C and D are 2 and 3 respectively hence making the cost as
7.
The minimum cost path is chosen i.e A-B.

Step-2
Using the same formula as step-1, the path is now calculated from the B node,
f(B-E) = 1 + 6 = 7.
f(B-F) = 1 + 8 = 9
Hence, the B-E path has lesser cost. Now the heuristics have to be updated since there is a
difference between actual and heuristic value of B. The minimum cost path is chosen and is
updated as the heuristic , in our case the value is 7. And because of change in heuristic of B there is
also change in heuristic of A which is to be calculated again.
f(A-B) = g(B) + updated((h(B)) = 1+7=8

Step-3
Comparing path of f(A-B) and f(A-C-D) it is seen that f(A-C-D) is smaller. Hence f(A-C-D) needs to be
explored.
Now the current node becomes C node and the cost of the path is calculated,
f(C-G) = 1+2 = 3
f(C-H-I) = 1+0+1+0 = 2
f(C-H-I) is chosen as minimum cost path, also there is no change in heuristic since it matches the
actual cost. Heuristic of path of H and I are 0 and hence they are solved, but Path A-D also needs to
be calculated, since it has an AND-arc.
f(D-J) = 1+0 = 1, hence heuristic of D needs to be updated to 1. And finally the f(A-C-D) needs to be
updated.
f(A-C-D) = g(C) + h(C) + g(D) + updated((h(D)) = 1+2+1+1 =5.
As we can see that the solved path is f(A-C-D).
What is the difference between A* Algorithm and AO* algorithm?
 A* algorithm provides with the optimal solution, whereas AO* stops when it finds any
solution.

 AO* algorithm requires lesser memory compared to A* algorithm.

 AO* algorithm doesn't go into infinite loop whereas the A* algorithm can go into an infinite
loop.

Hill Climbing Algorithm

o Hill climbing algorithm is a local search algorithm which continuously moves in the direction
of increasing elevation/value to find the peak of the mountain or best solution to the
problem. It terminates when it reaches a peak value where no neighbor has a higher value.
o Hill climbing algorithm is a technique which is used for optimizing the mathematical
problems. One of the widely discussed examples of Hill climbing algorithm is Traveling-
salesman Problem in which we need to minimize the distance traveled by the salesman.
o It is also called greedy local search as it only looks to its good immediate neighbor state and
not beyond that.
o A node of hill climbing algorithm has two components which are state and value.
o Hill Climbing is mostly used when a good heuristic is available.
o In this algorithm, we don't need to maintain and handle the search tree or graph as it only
keeps a single current state.

Features of Hill Climbing:

Following are some main features of Hill Climbing Algorithm:
 o Generate and Test variant: Hill Climbing is the variant of Generate and Test method. The
Generate and Test method produce feedback which helps to decide which direction to
move in the search space.
o Greedy approach: Hill-climbing algorithm search moves in the direction which optimizes the
cost.
o No backtracking: It does not backtrack the search space, as it does not remember the
previous states.

State-space Diagram for Hill Climbing:

The state-space landscape is a graphical representation of the hill-climbing algorithm which is
showing a graph between various states of algorithm and Objective function/Cost.

On Y-axis we have taken the function which can be an objective function or cost function, and
state-space on the x-axis. If the function on Y-axis is cost then, the goal of search is to find the
global minimum and local minimum. If the function of Y-axis is Objective function, then the goal of
the search is to find the global maximum and local maximum.

Different regions in the state space landscape:

Local Maximum: Local maximum is a state which is better than its neighbour states, but there is
also another state which is higher than it.

Global Maximum: Global maximum is the best possible state of state space landscape. It has the
highest value of objective function.

Current state: It is a state in a landscape diagram where an agent is currently present.

Flat local maximum: It is a flat space in the landscape where all the neighbour states of current
states have the same value.

Shoulder: It is a plateau region which has an uphill edge.

Types of Hill Climbing Algorithm:

o Simple hill Climbing:

o Steepest-Ascent hill-climbing:
o Stochastic hill Climbing:

1. Simple Hill Climbing:

Simple hill climbing is the simplest way to implement a hill climbing algorithm. It only evaluates the
neighbor node state at a time and selects the first one which optimizes current cost and set it as a
current state. It only checks it's one successor state, and if it finds better than the current state,
then move else be in the same state. This algorithm has the following features:

o Less time consuming

o Less optimal solution and the solution is not guaranteed

Algorithm for Simple Hill Climbing:

o Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and Stop.
o Step 2: Loop Until a solution is found or there is no new operator left to apply.
o Step 3: Select and apply an operator to the current state.
o Step 4: Check new state:

1. If it is goal state, then return success and quit.

2. Else if it is better than the current state then assign new state as a current state.
3. Else if not better than the current state, then return to step2.
o Step 5: Exit.

2. Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:

The steepest-Ascent algorithm is a variation of simple hill climbing algorithm. This algorithm
examines all the neighbouring nodes of the current state and selects one neighbor node which is
closest to the goal state. This algorithm consumes more time as it searches for multiple neighbors

Algorithm for Steepest-Ascent hill climbing:

o Step 1: Evaluate the initial state, if it is goal state then return success and stop, else make
current state as initial state.
o Step 2: Loop until a solution is found or the current state does not change.

1. Let SUCC be a state such that any successor of the current state will be better than it.
 2. For each operator that applies to the current state:

I. Apply the new operator and generate a new state.

II. Evaluate the new state.
III. If it is goal state, then return it and quit, else compare it to the SUCC.
IV. If it is better than SUCC, then set new state as SUCC.
V. If the SUCC is better than the current state, then set current state to SUCC.
o Step 5: Exit.

3. Stochastic hill climbing:

Stochastic hill climbing does not examine for all its neighbour before moving. Rather, this search
algorithm selects one neighbour node at random and decides whether to choose it as a current
state or examine another state.

Problems in Hill Climbing Algorithm:

1. Local Maximum: A local maximum is a peak state in the landscape which is better than each of
its neighbouring states, but there is another state also present which is higher than the local
maximum.

Solution: Backtracking technique can be a solution of the local maximum in state space landscape.
Create a list of the promising path so that the algorithm can backtrack the search space and explore
other paths as well.

2. Plateau: A plateau is the flat area of the search space in which all the neighbour states of the
current state contains the same value, because of this algorithm does not find any best direction to
move. A hill-climbing search might be lost in the plateau area.

Solution: The solution for the plateau is to take big steps or very little steps while searching, to
solve the problem. Randomly select a state which is far away from the current state so it is possible
that the algorithm could find non-plateau region.
3. Ridges: A ridge is a special form of the local maximum. It has an area which is higher than its
surrounding areas, but itself has a slope, and cannot be reached in a single move.

Solution: With the use of bidirectional search, or by moving in different directions, we can improve
this problem.

Simulated Annealing:

A hill-climbing algorithm which never makes a move towards a lower value guaranteed to be
incomplete because it can get stuck on a local maximum. And if algorithm applies a random walk,
by moving a successor, then it may complete but not efficient. Simulated Annealing is an algorithm
which yields both efficiency and completeness.

In mechanical term Annealing is a process of hardening a metal or glass to a high temperature then
cooling gradually, so this allows the metal to reach a low-energy crystalline state. The same process
is used in simulated annealing in which the algorithm picks a random move, instead of picking the
best move. If the random move improves the state, then it follows the same path. Otherwise, the
algorithm follows the path which has a probability of less than 1 or it moves downhill and chooses
another path.

Constraint Satisfaction Problems in Artificial Intelligence

Constraint Satisfaction Problems in Artificial Intelligence
We have seen so many techniques like Local search, Adversarial search to solve different problems.
The objective of every problem-solving technique is one, i.e., to find a solution to reach the goal.
Although, in adversarial search and local search, there were no constraints on the agents while
solving the problems and reaching to its solutions.
In this section, we will discuss another type of problem-solving technique known as Constraint
satisfaction technique. By the name, it is understood that constraint satisfaction means solving a
problem under certain constraints or rules.
Constraint satisfaction is a technique where a problem is solved when its values satisfy certain
constraints or rules of the problem. Such type of technique leads to a deeper understanding of the
problem structure as well as its complexity.
Constraint satisfaction depends on three components, namely:

 X: It is a set of variables.
 D: It is a set of domains where the variables reside. There is a specific domain for each
variable.
 C: It is a set of constraints which are followed by the set of variables.

In constraint satisfaction, domains are the spaces where the variables reside, following the problem
specific constraints. These are the three main elements of a constraint satisfaction technique. The
constraint value consists of a pair of {scope, rel}. The scope is a tuple of variables which participate
in the constraint and rel is a relation which includes a list of values which the variables can take to
satisfy the constraints of the problem.

Solving Constraint Satisfaction Problems

The requirements to solve a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) is:

 A state-space
 The notion of the solution.

A state in state-space is defined by assigning values to some or all variables such as

{X1=v1, X2=v2, and so on…}.
An assignment of values to a variable can be done in three ways:

 Consistent or Legal Assignment: An assignment which does not violate any constraint or
rule is called Consistent or legal assignment.
 Complete Assignment: An assignment where every variable is assigned with a value, and
the solution to the CSP remains consistent. Such assignment is known as Complete
assignment.
 Partial Assignment: An assignment which assigns values to some of the variables only. Such
type of assignments are called Partial assignments.

Types of Domains in CSP

There are following two types of domains which are used by the variables:

 Discrete Domain: It is an infinite domain which can have one state for multiple
variables. For example, a start state can be allocated infinite times for each variable.
 Finite Domain: It is a finite domain which can have continuous states describing one domain
for one specific variable. It is also called a continuous domain.

Constraint Types in CSP

With respect to the variables, basically there are following types of constraints:

 Unary Constraints: It is the simplest type of constraints that restricts the value of a single
variable.
 Binary Constraints: It is the constraint type which relates two variables. A value x2 will
contain a value which lies between x1 and x3.
 Global Constraints: It is the constraint type which involves an arbitrary number of variables.

Some special types of solution algorithms are used to solve the following
types of constraints:

 Linear Constraints: These types of constraints are commonly used in linear programming
where each variable containing an integer value exists in linear form only.
 Non-linear Constraints: These types of constraints are used in non-linear programming
where each variable (an integer value) exists in a non-linear form.

Constraint Propagation
In local state-spaces, the choice is only one, i.e., to search for a solution. But in CSP, we have two
choices either:

 We can search for a solution or

 We can perform a special type of inference called constraint propagation.

Constraint propagation is a special type of inference which helps in reducing the legal number of
values for the variables. The idea behind constraint propagation is local consistency.
In local consistency, variables are treated as nodes, and each binary constraint is treated as
an arc in the given problem. There are following local consistencies which are discussed below:

 Node Consistency: A single variable is said to be node consistent if all the values in the
variable’s domain satisfy the unary constraints on the variables.
 Arc Consistency: A variable is arc consistent if every value in its domain satisfies the binary
constraints of the variables.
 Path Consistency: When the evaluation of a set of two variable with respect to a third
variable can be extended over another variable, satisfying all the binary constraints. It is
similar to arc consistency.
 k-consistency: This type of consistency is used to define the notion of stronger forms of
propagation. Here, we examine the k-consistency of the variables.

CSP Problems
Constraint satisfaction includes those problems which contains some constraints while solving the
problem. CSP includes the following problems:
 Graph Coloring: The problem where the constraint is that no adjacent sides can have the
same color.

 Sudoku Playing: The gameplay where the constraint is that no number from 0-9 can be
repeated in the same row or column.

 n-queen problem: In n-queen problem, the constraint is that no queen should be placed
either diagonally, in the same row or column.

 Crossword: In crossword problem, the constraint is that there should be the correct
formation of the words, and it should be meaningful.

 Latin square Problem: In this game, the task is to search the pattern which is occurring
several times in the game. They may be shuffled but will contain the same digits.
Means-Ends Analysis in Artificial Intelligence
o We have studied the strategies which can reason either in forward or backward, but a
mixture of the two directions is appropriate for solving a complex and large problem. Such a
mixed strategy, make it possible that first to solve the major part of a problem and then go
back and solve the small problems arise during combining the big parts of the problem. Such
a technique is called Means-Ends Analysis.
o Means-Ends Analysis is problem-solving techniques used in Artificial intelligence for limiting
search in AI programs.
o It is a mixture of Backward and forward search technique.
o The MEA technique was first introduced in 1961 by Allen Newell, and Herbert A. Simon in
their problem-solving computer program, which was named as General Problem Solver
(GPS).
o The MEA analysis process centered on the evaluation of the difference between the current
state and goal state.

How means-ends analysis Works:

The means-ends analysis process can be applied recursively for a problem. It is a strategy to control
search in problem-solving. Following are the main Steps which describes the working of MEA
technique for solving a problem.

a. First, evaluate the difference between Initial State and final State.
b. Select the various operators which can be applied for each difference.
c. Apply the operator at each difference, which reduces the difference between the current
state and goal state.
Operator Sub-goaling
In the MEA process, we detect the differences between the current state and goal state. Once these
differences occur, then we can apply an operator to reduce the differences. But sometimes it is
possible that an operator cannot be applied to the current state. So we create the subproblem of
the current state, in which operator can be applied, such type of backward chaining in which
operators are selected, and then sub goals are set up to establish the preconditions of the operator
is called Operator Subgoaling.

Algorithm for Means-Ends Analysis:

Let's we take Current state as CURRENT and Goal State as GOAL, then following are the steps for
the MEA algorithm.

o Step 1: Compare CURRENT to GOAL, if there are no differences between both then return
Success and Exit.
o Step 2: Else, select the most significant difference and reduce it by doing the following steps
until the success or failure occurs.

1. Select a new operator O which is applicable for the current difference, and if there is
no such operator, then signal failure.
2. Attempt to apply operator O to CURRENT. Make a description of two states.
i) O-Start, a state in which O?s preconditions are satisfied.
ii) O-Result, the state that would result if O were applied In O-start.
3. If
(First-Part <------ MEA (CURRENT, O-START)
And
(LAST-Part <----- MEA (O-Result, GOAL), are successful, then signal Success and
return the result of combining FIRST-PART, O, and LAST-PART.

The above-discussed algorithm is more suitable for a simple problem and not adequate for solving
complex problems.

Example of Mean-Ends Analysis:

Let's take an example where we know the initial state and goal state as given below. In this
problem, we need to get the goal state by finding differences between the initial state and goal
state and applying operators.
Solution:
To solve the above problem, we will first find the differences between initial states and goal states,
and for each difference, we will generate a new state and will apply the operators. The operators
we have for this problem are:

o Move
o Delete
o Expand

1. Evaluating the initial state: In the first step, we will evaluate the initial state and will compare
the initial and Goal state to find the differences between both states.

2. Applying Delete operator: As we can check the first difference is that in goal state there is no dot
symbol which is present in the initial state, so, first we will apply the Delete operator to remove
this dot.

3. Applying Move Operator: After applying the Delete operator, the new state occurs which we will
again compare with goal state. After comparing these states, there is another difference that is the
square is outside the circle, so, we will apply the Move Operator.
4. Applying Expand Operator: Now a new state is generated in the third step, and we will compare
this state with the goal state. After comparing the states there is still one difference which is the
size of the square, so, we will apply Expand operator, and finally, it will generate the goal state.

Ethics of AI: