Raven pins a note above the console: "Satellites leave a streak. Comets are wide and fuzzy."
"Facts we already know," she says. "Now watch what we can figure out from them."
Rocket picks up card D. "Streak yes. So by the first fact, it is a satellite streak!"
Nova blinks her lights. "You just did reasoning," she says. "You started with known facts and a record, and got something new."
Raven smiles. "Sky Sorter needs to do that thousands of times without getting tired."
Rocket grabs the next card from the pile.
Reasoning means working out new information from what is already known.
In AI, reasoning algorithms use representations to do this.
Sky Sorter knows a few facts, written as rules. It also knows the features of one card.
From those two things, it can work out a label nobody wrote on the card.
| Known fact (rule) | Known record | New information |
|---|---|---|
| If streak is yes, the object is a satellite streak. | Card D: streak yes | Card D is a satellite streak. |
| If size is 8 or more, the object is a comet. | Card F: size 9 | Card F is a comet. |
| If size is 8 or more, the object is a comet. | Card A: size 2 | Card A is not a comet. |
Nova is a story character, so she can chat and wonder.
Real AI is a tool people build. AI systems keep representations and use reasoning algorithms.
But they do not think the way a human does.
Sky Sorter only follows its rules on its numbers. It does not understand stars, and it can be wrong.
| Statement | True or false? |
|---|---|
| Reasoning works out new information from what is already known. | ? |
| A reasoning algorithm needs a representation to work on. | ? |
| Real AI thinks the same way a person does. | ? |
| If a rule is wrong, reasoning can reach a wrong answer. | ? |
Nice reasoning! Tomorrow you build a full decision tree in the Explorer Lab.