Artificial Intelligence: Intelligent agents and environments — Agents, Percepts and Rationality
What makes something an agent, what it means for an agent to act rationally, and how performance measures and PEAS shape agent design.
Try 3 questions
1. In the standard AI textbook definition, what counts as an agent?
- Anything that perceives and acts on its environment
- Any robot with a body that moves
- Any program that learns from data
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Answer: Anything that perceives and acts on its environment
Russell and Norvig define an agent by its loop of sensing and acting; learning and a physical body are optional extras.
2. Does a household thermostat qualify as an agent in this sense?
- No, agents need a body that moves
- Yes, it senses temperature and acts
- No, agents must be able to learn
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Answer: Yes, it senses temperature and acts
It perceives through a sensor and acts through a switch on the heater, which is all the definition requires, even if its behavior is very simple.
3. What is an agent's "percept sequence"?
- The list of actions it can choose
- Everything it has ever perceived, in order
- Only its current sensor reading
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Answer: Everything it has ever perceived, in order
The percept sequence is the full history of inputs; a rational choice can depend on any of it, not just the latest reading.
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