Problem-solving approach to typical AI problems
The problem-solving approach to typical AI problems follows a structured process that focuses on
how an intelligent system or agent can find solutions to given tasks or challenges. Here’s an
outline of the typical AI problem-solving approach:
1. Problem Definition
Goal: Clearly define the problem the AI system needs to solve. This involves
understanding the objective, constraints, and environment in which the system will
operate.
Key Aspects:
o What is the desired output or goal state?
o What is the initial state of the system?
o What actions or steps can be taken?
o What are the constraints (time, resources, etc.)?
Example: In a pathfinding problem, the goal might be to find the shortest path from point
A to point B while avoiding obstacles.
2. Problem Representation
Goal: Formulate the problem in a structured way that an AI system can process. This
involves breaking the problem into manageable components and choosing an appropriate
representation.
Approaches:
o State space representation: Define all possible states and transitions between
them.
o Graph-based representation: Use nodes for states and edges for possible actions.
o Rule-based representation: Encode domain knowledge and rules to guide
decisions.
Example: In a chess game, the board and positions of pieces are represented as a state, and
possible moves are transitions between states.
3. Search Strategy Selection
Goal: Choose an appropriate search method to explore possible solutions. The chosen
strategy defines how the AI navigates through the problem space to reach a solution.
Common Search Strategies:
o Uninformed Search (Blind Search): No information about the goal state except
the problem’s structure.
Breadth-First Search (BFS)
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Depth-First Search (DFS)
o Informed Search (Heuristic Search): Uses domain-specific knowledge to guide
the search.
A* Algorithm
Greedy Best-First Search
Example: In a maze-solving problem, the A* algorithm can be used with a heuristic that
estimates the distance to the goal.
4. Heuristics Development (for complex problems)
Goal: Create or use heuristics (approximation functions) that guide the AI system toward
the solution more efficiently by estimating the cost of reaching the goal from the current
state.
Common Techniques:
o Admissible Heuristics: Never overestimate the cost to reach the goal, ensuring
optimality (e.g., straight-line distance in pathfinding).
o Non-Admissible Heuristics: May overestimate but can still find near-optimal
solutions faster in some cases.
Example: In a traveling salesman problem, a heuristic might estimate the shortest
unvisited city based on straight-line distances.
5. Plan Generation
Goal: Develop a sequence of actions or steps that the AI agent will follow to solve the
problem and achieve the goal.
Approaches:
o Deterministic Planning: Where the outcomes of actions are predictable (e.g., robot
navigation in a known environment).
o Probabilistic Planning: Where the outcomes of actions are uncertain or
probabilistic (e.g., in dynamic environments like stock markets).
Example: In robot path planning, a series of forward movements and turns may be
generated to reach a destination.
6. Optimization (Optional)
Goal: Improve the solution to either minimize or maximize an objective function, such as
reducing time, energy, or cost.
Techniques:
o Local Search: Adjust the solution by exploring neighbouring states (e.g., hill
climbing, simulated annealing).
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o Genetic Algorithms: Use evolutionary principles like mutation and crossover to
optimize solutions.
o Gradient Descent: Common in machine learning, used to minimize the error in
models.
Example: In job scheduling, the solution might be optimized to reduce the overall
completion time by rearranging task sequences.
7. Learning (for adaptive problems)
Goal: In problems where the environment or the problem itself changes over time, learning
methods allow the AI to adapt and improve its performance based on experience.
Approaches:
o Supervised Learning: Learning from labelled data (e.g., classification problems).
o Unsupervised Learning: Learning patterns in data without labels (e.g., clustering).
o Reinforcement Learning: Learning from feedback (rewards or penalties) by
interacting with the environment.
Example: In a game-playing AI like AlphaGo, reinforcement learning is used to improve
performance by learning from previous games.
8. Evaluation
Goal: Assess the quality of the solution. Check whether the AI system has achieved the
goal and whether the solution is optimal or acceptable within constraints.
Key Metrics:
o Accuracy: How close is the solution to the correct one?
o Efficiency: How much time and resources were used?
o Optimality: Is the solution the best one, or could it be further improved?
Example: In an image recognition problem, evaluate the model’s accuracy by comparing
predicted labels with actual labels on a test set.
9. Iteration (Optional)
Goal: Refine the solution by iterating through previous steps. If the initial solution is
suboptimal or fails to meet the goals, adjustments to the problem representation, search
strategies, or heuristics can be made.
Example: In optimizing a machine learning model, you may iterate by tweaking
hyperparameters, retraining, and re-evaluating.
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Example of AI Problem-Solving: Pathfinding in a Maze
1. Problem Definition: Find the shortest path from the start of a maze to the exit while
avoiding obstacles.
2. Problem Representation: Represent the maze as a 2D grid where each cell is a state.
3. Search Strategy: Use A* search with a heuristic that estimates the remaining distance to
the exit.
4. Heuristics: Use Manhattan distance as a heuristic (sum of the horizontal and vertical
distances).
5. Plan Generation: Generate a sequence of moves (e.g., move north, east, etc.) to reach the
exit.
6. Optimization: Adjust the path to avoid backtracking or minimize the number of moves.
7. Evaluation: Check if the path is the shortest possible and if the solution is found
efficiently.
8. Iteration: Refine the solution if necessary (e.g., if there are dynamic obstacles).
This approach ensures a systematic and logical method to handle a wide variety of AI problems
efficiently.
