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Encyclopedia > Intelligent agents
It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with software agent. (Discuss)

See intelligent agent Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... In computer science, a software agent is software that acts as an agent for another as in a relationship of agency. ... re merge: Please refer to discussion. ...


Intelligent agents or bots are software elements that work without the assistance of users by making choices. Choices are based on rules that software developers have identified and built into the software. It is expected that Intelligent Agents will be a strong focus for AI development in years to come, in order to help automate simple tasks. Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... A software developer is an entity, either a company or individual, that creates software. ... Artificial intelligence (also known as machine intelligence and often abbreviated as AI) is intelligence exhibited by any manufactured (i. ...


There are several different classes of intelligent agents.

Contents


Buyer Agents (Shopping Bots)

These bots help Internet surfers find products and services they are searching for. For example, when a person surfs for an item on eBay, at the bottom of the page there is a list of similar products that other customers who did the same search looked at. This is because it is assumed the user tastes are relatively similar and they will be interested in the same products.


User Agents (Personal Agents)

These agents are meant to carry out tasks automatically for the user. For example, some bots sort emails according to the user's order of preference, assemble customized news reports (e.g. newshub), or fill out webpage forms with the user's stored information.


Monitoring-and-surveillance (Predictive) Agents

These agents are used to observe and report on equipment, usually computer systems. For example, the agents keep track of company inventory levels, observe competitors' prices and relay them back to the company, watch stock manipulation by insider trading and rumors, etc.


Data Mining Agents

This agent uses information technology to find trends and patterns in an abundance of information from many different sources. The user can sort through this information in order to find whatever information they are seeking. An example of this class of bot would be a data mining agent that detects market conditions and changes and relays them back to a user/company so that the user/company can make decisions accordingly. For example, the agent may detect a decline in the construction industry for an economy; based on this relayed information construction companies will be able to make intelligent decisions regarding the hiring/firing of employees or the purchase/lease of equipment in order to best suit their firm.


Other examples

Some other examples of current Intelligent Agents include some spam filters, game bots, and server monitoring tools. Search engine indexing bots also qualify as intelligent agents. More examples can be found at BotSpot. A typical spam advertisement Spam by e-mail is one type of spamming that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands (or millions) of recipients. ... Bot may refer to: Internet bot: a type of computer program Larval Bot Kill Bot Bot, Tarragona: a small municipality in the comarca (county) of Terra Alta, Tarragona province, Catalonia, Spain video game Bot, see Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, small, bloblike creatures that jump about and have no... The success of the Google search engine was mainly due to its powerful PageRank algorithm and its simple, easy-to-use interface. ...


Outline of an agent

--- the following content is based on Ch2 of "An introduction to multiagent systems" by Michael Wooldridge ---

  • Definition of Agent:

"An agent is a computer system that is situated in some environment, and that is capable of autonomous action in this environment in order to meet its design objectives". (Wooldridge & Jennings, 1995)

  • capabilities of Intelligent agents
 * reactivity: perceive their environment and respond to surrounding changes * proactiveness: goal-directed behaviour * social ability:interact with other agents 
  • Agents vs. Objects
 * agents are more autonomous than object, decide what to do to achieve a goal * agents have flexible behaviour: reactive, proactive, social. * agents have at least one thread of control 
  • Agents vs. Expert Systems
 * expert systems are not coupled to their environment * Agents are capable of reactive, proactive behaviour. * Expert systems do not consider social ability 

  Results from FactBites:
 
Nature Web Matters (3645 words)
To deal with a travel agent, you need to be able to talk about travelling, to interact with a florist you need some knowledge of flowers, and to deal with an internet agent you must share a vocabulary about the area of concern.
Intelligent agent researchers are watching these developments closely, and as the web becomes increasingly 'agent-friendly' more capable agents are being developed.
The good news is that many of the components to build such agents are beginning to move beyond research exercises and it is not hard to imagine such agents coming into common use in the next few years.
Intelligent agent - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (192 words)
In computer science, an intelligent agent (IA) is a software agent that exhibits some form of artificial intelligence.
While the working of software agents used for operator assistance or data mining (sometimes referred to as bots), are often based on fixed pre-programmed rules, "intelligent" here implies the ability to adapt and learn.
In some literature IAs are also referred to as autonomous intelligent agents, although autonomy is generally assumed for agents.
  More results at FactBites »


 

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