1. Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science Lee, Jung-Woo
Intelligent Software Agents Ch 2. Agents as Tools of the Information Society Ch 3. Fundamental Concepts of Intelligent Software Agents
Interdisciplinary Program in Cognitive Science
Lee, Jung-Woo

2. Contents Agents as Tools of the Information Society
Intelligent Software Agent as a tool of Information Society
Benefits from Intelligent Agent
Fundamental Concepts of Intelligent Software Agents
Definition of Intelligent Software Agents
Characteristics of Intelligent Software Agents
Classification

3. The Information Society
On the Way to the Information Society
Digitization
Networking
Internet
Tools of the Information Society
Browsers
Search Engines

4. Intelligent Software Agents
Intelligent Agents are
a new category of information society tools
software programs that independently perform tasks on behalf of a user in a network environment
Intelligent Agents in the Business Area
Intelligent Agents in the Private Area

5. Economic Potential(1/2)
Potential Benefit from the User’s Viewpoint
Improvement of efficiency in working with internet
Time-saving
Increase in speed of arriving at solutions in internet
Improvement of effectivity in working with internet
Overcome the characteristics of human problem solving
Increase in the transparency and optimizations
Comparing information from various sources
User can select the most favorable
Intelligent agents have made Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible hand’ visible in the electronic business world

6. Economic Potential(2/2)
Potential Benefit from the Viewpoint of the Information and Communications Industry
Sales for intelligent agent(OVUM’s expectation)
19 million dollars in 1996
357 million dollars in 1998
4.6 billion dollars in 2006
OVUM expects that the agents for private household will become the primary innovation factor and from the start of the next millennium the sales with private households will exceed those of business and government

7. Definition of Intelligent Software Agents(1/2)
Three Major Categories of Agents
Human Agent / Hardware Agent / Software Agent

8. Definition of Intelligent Software Agents(2/2)
Two Major Requirement for Intelligent Agent
Autonomous Processing
Communication / Cooperation with other objects
A Definition of Intelligent Software Agent is
a software program that can perform specific tasks for a user and possesses a degree of intelligence that permits it to perform parts of its tasks autonomously and to interact with its environment in a useful manner
Information / Cooperation / Transaction Agent

9. Information Agent
Task : search for information in distributed systems or networks
locate information sources
extract information from the sources
filter the information of relevance for the user from the total quantity of found information using the user’s interest profile
prepare and present the results in an appropriate form

10. Cooperation Agent
Task : solve complex problems by using communication and cooperation mechanisms with other objects, such as agents, humans or external resources
used when a problem exceeds the capabilities of an individual agent or agents already exist that already have a solution and whose knowledge can be used by other agents
The demands on intelligence are higher than that of pure information agent

11. Transaction Agent
Task : processing and monitoring of transaction in classical database environments and in the areas of network management and electronic commerce
Such agents normally operate in very sensitive areas and represent their users for tasks that demand a high degree of responsibility, for example in the purchase of products using a user’s credit card

12. Characteristics of Intelligent Software Agents(1/2)
The characteristics can be grouped into two large categories : internal and external
Internal properties
determine the actions within the agent
Ex : the ability to learn, reactivity, autonomy, goal-orientedness
External properties
affect the interaction of several agents or human-agent communication
Ex : communication, cooperation

13. Characteristics of Intelligent Software Agents(2/2)

14. Internal Properties(1/4)
Reactivity :
Capability of reacting appropriately to influences or information from its environment
Agent must have suitable sensors or possess its own internal model of its environment
Proactivity / goal-orientation
Capability for an agent itself to take the initiative under specific circumstances
Require that the agent has well-defined goals or even a complex goal system

15. Internal Properties(2/4)
Reasoning / learning
The intelligence of an agent is formed from three main components: its internal knowledge base, the reasoning capabilities based on the contents of the knowledge base, and the ability to learn or to adapt to changes to the environment.
Reasoning power requires rationality
Rational processing requires the existence of a goal system
Ability to learn from previous experiences and to successively adapts its behavior to the environment is as important for the intelligent behavior of an agent

16. Internal Properties(3/4)
Autonomy
Capability to follow its goals autonomously, that is, without interactions or commands form the environment
To permit autonomous behavior, agent must be provided with those resources and capabilities
Ex : availability of an electronic network, capability to navigate through the network(mobility), capability to make contact with other agents(communication). Goal-orientation and ability to learn.

17. Internal Properties(4/4)
Mobility
Ability to navigate within electronic communications networks
Demands on network environment and raise questions regarding security, data privacy, and management
Reduces the network loading. It can go to the computer or agents with the required information, not sending a series of messages over network. Then perform all tasks locally on the target computer
Agency : Meeting points, serves as marketplace or discussion and communication forum

18. External Properties(1/2)
Communication / Cooperation
Interaction with its environment(human users, other agents, arbitrary information sources)
Communication require standardized protocol for exchange of information
Cooperation must augment the communications capability

19. External Properties(2/2)
Character
It’s desirable for agent to demonstrate human traits
An agent’s most important characteristics are honesty, trustworthiness, and reliability
It is important that agents with a high degree of interaction with people exhibit emotional states, such as joy, sadness, frustrations.

20. Classification
Three Criteria
Intelligence, Mobility, Number of Agents

21. Information Agents

22. Cooperation Agents

23. Transaction Agents