Introduction to Artificial Intelligence - Old Questions
4. Differentiate between inference and reasoning. Why probabilistic reasoning is important in the AI? Explain with an example.
Answer
AI is thinking...
Inference: Inference is a process by which new sentences are derived from existing sentences in KB. E.g. Modus tollens is a rule of inference which derives new knowledge.
Reasoning: Reasoning is the act of deriving a conclusion from certain premise using given methodology.
Probabilistic reasoning is using logic and probability to handle uncertain situations. The aim of probabilistic reasoning is to combine the capacity of probability theory to handle uncertainity with the capacity of deductive logic to exploit structure of formal argument.
Probabilistic reasoning is used in AI:
- When we are unsure of the predicates
- When the possibilities of predicates become too large to list down
- When it is known that an error occurs during an experiment
One has to apply probabilistic reasoning in deciding about the next card to play in a game of cards or in diagnosing the illness from the symptoms.