CMPSC 165A Chapter Notes - Chapter 13: Utility, Possible World, Probability Theory
Document Summary
Problem-solving agents and logical agents handle uncertainty by keeping track of a belief state and generating a contingency plan that handles every possible eventuality that its sensors may report during execution. Belief state = representation of the set of all possible world states that it might be in. Rational decision depends on both the relative importance of various goals and the likelihood that, and degree to which, they will be achieved. Agent"s knowledge can provide only a degree of belief. Ontological commitments = the world is composed of facts that do or do not hold in any particular case. Epistemological commitments = a logic agent believes each sentence to be true/false or has no opinion, whereas a probabilistic agent may have a numerical degree of believe between 0 and 1. Probability provides a way of summarizing the uncertainty that comes from our laziness and ignorance, thus solving the qualification problem.
