1999 Paper 8 Question 8
Artificial Intelligence
The following stories are adapted from P. Winston’s textbook Artificial Intelligence
(2nd edition, 1984):
Thomas and Albert
Thomas and Albert respected each other’s technical judgement and
decided to form a software company together. Unfortunately, Thomas
learned that Albert was notoriously absentminded, whereupon he insisted
that Albert have nothing to do with the proposed company’s finances. This
angered Albert so much that he backed out of their agreement, hoping
Thomas would be disappointed.
John and Mary
John and Mary loved each other and decided to be married. A month
before the wedding, John discovered that Mary’s father was secretly
smuggling stolen art through Venice. After struggling with his conscience
for days, John reported Mary’s father to the police. Mary understood
John’s decision, but she despised him for it nonetheless, and she broke off
their engagement knowing he would suffer.
For each story, devise a semantic network to represent the characters and events in
the story. [10 marks]
Show how a correspondence may be made between these semantic networks to
represent the abstract similarity between these stories. [10 marks]