Kyburg given research appointment, grant

Kyburg

Kyburg is spending his six-month institute appointment studying the relation between uncertain inference--the human process of reaching conclusions--and data mining, by which computers search for information in data or draw conclusions from it. His research will help contribute to developing ways that artificial intelligence embodied in computers can use information, including making inferences and decisions.

"There are enormous collections of data that nobody could possibly look through," he explained. Though machines can analyze data faster and more efficiently than people, they don't have the human ability to infer useful but uncertain conclusions.

"It's very hard to build the intuitive cognitive abilities that come naturally to humans into systems of artificial intelligence," said Kyburg.

The Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, located at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, conducts interdisciplinary research for private and government organizations. Ongoing projects at the institute include issues in artificial intelligence, knowledge representation, and computers in education. Its focus is using computers as prosthetic aids to human abilities.

The National Science Foundation's grant of almost $74,000 will support Kyburg's related research on probability. He's developing tests to compare and evaluate different approaches to representing and dealing with uncertainty, primarily in philosophy but also in science.

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