How is an intelligent software agent different from a software agent? The trite answer is that intelligence is in the eye of the beholder (or the author or the critic). The term "intelligent agent" is frequently used as a form of marketing hype. Mostly it comes down to an attempt by the designer of the software agent to put enough "smarts" into the code so that the software agent can perform more significant, more complex tasks and deal more intelligently with a dynamic environment. I would add that an agent only becomes intelligent after it can begin working at the level of goals and breaking goals into sub-goals rather than merely being programmed for specific tasks. That said, some of the most intelligent behavior can in fact come from larger groups of simple, "dumb" agents working in parallel (possibly as a "swarm") to solve a problem that is larger than any of the individual agents.
One of the keys to being truly intelligent is that intelligence requires the ability to learn, which is the ability to acquire knowledge and then use to use that knowledge to effect a change in behavior. But maybe that's a little bit beyond current technology.
Variant of intelligent agent.
Singular of intelligent software agents.
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Updated: November 14, 2005 04:57:05 PM -0500
Copyright © 2005 John W. Krupansky d/b/a Base Technology