probability

Terms from Artificial Intelligence: humans at the heart of algorithms

Probability is a measure of the likelihood of some event or outcome occuring . It is measured from zero (the event is impossible or will never occur) to 1 (it will definitely happen). For example, the porobablity of obtaining a number bigger than 4 on a single roll of a die is 1/3 (=1/6 for the 5 face plus 1/6 for the 6 face). Phenomenon, such as the roll of a die, that can be repeated the probability can be seen as representing the long term frequency of the outcome happening, but for singular outcomes, such as a potential civilisation-ending astroid collision, the philopsophical meaning is more problematic.

Used in Chap. 3: pages 28, 30, 33; Chap. 4: pages 51, 52; Chap. 7: page 95; Chap. 9: page 121; Chap. 10: page 137; Chap. 11: pages 155, 156, 157; Chap. 14: pages 204, 207; Chap. 18: page 290; Chap. 19: pages 298, 304; Chap. 21: page 335; Chap. 22: page 348