A brief overview of how expert systems work

What is an expert system?

Imagine a situation where computers are able to render the need for human personnel in organizations as needless, well, not exactly so.

However, in a way we would be talking about expert systems.

For a long time coming sci-fi and Hollywood movies has incepted in our minds the possibility of having the world evolve to a point where computers are in control of everything.

Well, if anyone of the writers and conjurers of these ideas were to learn about how expert systems work today, they might be more inclined to believe in a possible machine apocalypse.

Long story short, an expert system is a computer program that is designed to use artificial intelligence to make the sort of decisions that would normally be made by a human.

A good example would be a health-check/diagnosis app where the user can enter details of how they are feeling and the app then returns a possible ailment based on the input and probably recommend a prescription.

Of course the process described above would most probably be done under the supervision of an expert medical practitioner to ensure that no input error or miscalculation occurs, and I guess that fact would dismiss the notion of computers or AI coming to take over the world.

Actually I read the following line in a post and I tend to agree based on my understanding of how expert systems work.

Expert systems are usually intended to complement, not replace, human experts.

What are some specific utilities of expert systems in today's world? You might ask

Based on the definition supplied above, if you are a tech inclined person(even if you are not) you probably would be able to guess some possible use case of expert systems already, but in any case here are some that I'd talk about

• In medicine, expert systems are used mainly for diagnosis, for example this research talks about diagnosing eye disease using an expert system.

• Expert systems are useful in areas of accounting such as audit planning, internal control evaluation and identification of audit risk. Here you can read this detailed research that talks about the application of expert systems in accounting.

• Financial marketing, financial analysis, banking management and so on. All of these fields have expert systems specifically built to fit in with their respective functions.

What do you think of expert systems? Should we be worried that science fiction will come to pass or are the fears unfounded. Kindly share your thoughts.