Experts and Expertise: An Identification Paradox

Abstract

Expert systems are a subset of the field of artificial intelligence that model human expertise. They are utilized to solve problems which, due to their degree of difficulty, require human expertise which these systems model through stored knowledge and inferencing procedures. Knowledge is the major factor in the performance of the system. However, the knowledge is not merely a collection of facts as would be found in a database, it also includes assumptions, beliefs and rules for dealing with these bits of information. These rules of thumb are called heuristics, and they form a second type of information within the knowledge base and provide the rules concerning how the basic facts are utilized. Heuristics provide the common sense'' or expertise that is part of the system[1, p. 26].