Symbolic AI, also known as “Good Old-Fashioned AI” (GOFAI), is a type of artificial intelligence that uses symbols and rules to solve problems.

Symbolic AI was the dominant approach to AI from the 1950s to the 1980s, and it’s particularly good at tasks that involve explicit reasoning and logic, like playing chess or proving mathematical theorems. It’s based on the idea that many aspects of intelligence can be achieved by manipulating symbols in a rule-based way.

Let’s use the classic cartoon character Scooby-Doo as an example to explain Symbolic AI.

Imagine we’re creating a Symbolic AI system to simulate a Scooby-Doo episode.

In this system, each character (Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, etc.), location (the haunted house, the Mystery Machine van), and object (a sandwich, a magnifying glass) is represented as a symbol.

We also have a set of rules defining how these symbols interact. For example, we might have rules like:

• * If Scooby and Shaggy see a ghost (a symbol for a scary entity), then they run away (a symbol for a specific action).
• If Velma finds a clue (symbol for an object of interest), she analyzes it (symbol for a specific action).
• If the team traps the ghost (a combination of symbols for action and entity), the ghost is revealed to be a person in disguise (a symbol for a plot twist).

The AI system uses these symbols and rules to generate a Scooby-Doo story. It can reason through the rules to decide what happens next in the story based on the current situation.

That’s a simplified example of how Symbolic AI works. It’s all about representing the world with symbols and using rules to manipulate those symbols.

However, it’s worth noting that while Symbolic AI can be powerful, it has limitations. It’s good at tasks that a clear set of rules can define, but it struggles with tasks that involve learning from data or handling ambiguous situations.