Assignment 11

Overview

Topic: Artificial Intelligence
Related Reading: Ch. 13 and notes (skip 13.2, 13.6)
Due:

Internet Requirements

You will not need an Internet connection for completing the assignment, other than for submission.

Practice Problems

Exercises 1-5 of Ch. 13 (p. 444); answers at the end of the assignment

Exercises 31, 67 of Ch. 13 (p. 446); answers in back of text

Starting from the question tree

Question Tree for Schools

                                   Is it in Chicago?
                                  /y               n\
             Is it a Catholic school?             Is it in Illinois?
             /y                     n\            /y                n\
It it Jesuit?                     UIC        Southern Illinois U Beloit
/y          n\
Loyola   DePaul

Add Roosevelt, making the question that distinguishes it from UIC, "Is it a state school?" (answer at the end of the assignement)

Make your own question tree to find the items of your choice. Make it take at least two questions to determine any of the items.

(Answers will vary.)

Problems to be Submitted (20 points)

(5 points)

Answer Thought Question #1 of Ch. 13 (p. 448)

(5 points)

What is another school outside Chicago that you could add to the question tree in the Practice Problems?

When trying to find the new school using the existing tree, what incorrect school would you find instead?

What is a question that would distinguish the incorrect school and the new school?

Draw the new tree.

(10 points)

Many statements in a natural language, such as English, contain ambiguity for a variety of reasons. As humans, we can often (though not always) distinguish between possible meanings. Resolving such ambiguities is a great challenge for software.

The textbook and the lecture notes discuss several sources of ambiguity, giving many examples of such ambiguities.

For each of the five types of ambiguity below we want you to do the following.

Create your own example of an English statement which has such an ambiguity.

Your example must be different from the examples given in the text book or lecture notes.

Justify your answer, explaining the ambiguity, and giving two or more possible interpretations of your statement. (Ideally, several of the interpretations might be 'reasonable' as opposed to one obvious interpretation and one senseless interpretation)

Lexical ambiguity

Syntactic ambiguity

Referential ambiguity

The need for rules of conversation (discussed in class and notes)

The need for real-world, topical knowledge (discussed in class and notes)

Overall, please type your answers to all of the problems in a single document to be submitted electronically. Please see details about the submission process.

Extra Credit (2 points)

Figure 13.4 of the text and the corresponding discussion involve a variant of the game of Nim. Interestingly, the text book never explicitly stated the most important conclusions. Assuming that both players use optimal strategies, who will win the game, Player 1 or Player 2? Explain why.

By the way, the text explained that they used a very simplified version of the game as an example. If you would like, you may play the computer in a more interesting version of the game Nim. Let me know if you are able to beat the computer. I still haven't.

Answers to exercises 1-5: 1A(stop sitting or defend) 2C(You on the left or street on the left) 3B (what is it: car or lawnmower or ??) 4C (I or the movie was flying) 5B (who is she: Mary or Kay or ??)

Extended tree for the School Practice Problem:

                               Is it in Chicago?
                              /y               n\
          Is it a Catholic school?             Is it in Illinois?
         /y                     n\            /y                n\
It it Jesuit?    Is it a state school?   Southern Illinois U Beloit
/y          n\    /y                 n\
Loyola   DePaul   UIC              Roosevelt