Artificial Intelligence

CS-216
Institute of Southern Punjab
Multan

Syed Zohair Quain Haider

Lecturer ISP Multan
Lecture#7
In the Last Lecture:
• Hill Climbing Algorithm
• Adversarial search

Last Discussion
Last Discussion
In Today’s Lecture
• Hill Climbing Algorithm (8 puzzle problem)
• Adversarial search
• Introduction to Game Playing
• Mini-Max Algorithm
• Alpha-Beta Pruning

Today’s Discussion
Today’s Discussion
 8-PuZZle problem in Hill Climbing
8-PuZZle problem in Hill Climbing
 8-PuZZle problem in Hill Climbing
8-PuZZle problem in Hill Climbing
Adversarial Search
Adversarial search is a search, where we examine the problem which arises when we try to
plan ahead of the world and other agents are planning against us.
• In previous topics, we have studied the search strategies which are only associated with a
single agent that aims to find the solution which often expressed in the form of a sequence
of actions.
• But, there might be some situations where more than one agent is searching for the
solution in the same search space, and this situation usually occurs in game playing.
• The environment with more than one agent is termed as multi-agent environment, in which
each agent is an opponent of other agent and playing against each other. Each agent
needs to consider the action of other agent and effect of that action on their performance.
• So, Searches in which two or more players with conflicting goals are trying to explore the
same search space for the solution, are called adversarial searches, often known as
Games.
• Games are modeled as a Search problem and heuristic evaluation function, and these are
the two main factors which help to model and solve games in AI.

Adversarial Search
Adversarial Search
Introduction to game playing

Adversarial Search
Adversarial Search
• "Unpredictable" opponent  specifying a move for every possible
opponent reply
• Time limits  unlikely to find goal, must approximate

Games vs. search problems

Games vs. search problems
• The general case of a game with two players, whom we will call
MAX and M1N,

• MAX moves first, and then they take turns moving until the game
is over.

• At the end of the game, points are awarded to the winning player.

Perfect Decisions in two person Games

• The initial state, which includes the board position and an indication of
whose move it is.
• A set of operators, which define the legal moves that a player can make.
• A terminal test, which determines when the game is over. States where the
game has ended are called terminal states.
• A utility function (also called a payoff function), which gives a numeric value
for the outcome of a game. In chess, the outcome is a win, loss, or draw,
which we can represent by the values +1, —1, or 0

Formal definition of game as search problem

• MAX would have to search for a sequence of moves that leads to a terminal
state that is a winner then go ahead and make the first move in the
sequence.
• Unfortunately, MIN has something to say about it.
• MAX therefore must find a strategy that will lead to a winning terminal state
regardless of what MIN does, where the strategy includes the correct move
for MAX for each possible move by MIN.
• We will begin by showing how to find the optimal (or rational) strategy.

Perfect Decisions in two person Games

 • From the initial state, has a choice of nine possible moves.
• Play alternates between MAX placing x's and MIN placing o's until
we reach leaf nodes corresponding to terminal states: states where
one player has three in a row or all the squares are filled.
• The number on each leaf node indicates the utility value of the
terminal state from the point of view of MAX; high values are
assumed to be good for MAX and bad for MIN.
• It is MAX'S job to use the search tree to determine the best move.

Tic-Tac-Toe Game tree (2-player, deterministic,

Tic-Tac-Toe Game tree (2-player, deterministic,
turns)
Generate Game Tree
Generate Game Tree
 Searching with an opponent
Searching with an opponent
• Heuristic approximation: defining an evaluation function which indicates
how close a state is from a winning (or losing) move
• This function includes domain information.
• It does not represent a cost or a distance in steps.
• Conventionally:
• A winning move is represented by the value“+∞”.
• A losing move is represented by the value “-∞”.
• The algorithm searches with limited depth.

• Each new decision implies repeating part of the search.

Searching with an opponent

Searching with an opponent
• The game tree is fully developed to a given number of levels.
• An evaluation function is applied to each leaf node. These values represent
how good each node is for the max player.
• These values are then propagated upwards, indicating the next best move
for the max player
• The success of the minimax algorithm depends on how accurate the
evaluation function is.
• MAX plays with “X” and desires maximizing e.
• MIN plays with “0” and desires minimizing e.

Evaluation Function
Evaluation Function
• (3X + O) – (3Z + Y)
• X = Number of rows, columns or diagonals with two X’s and no O’s
• O = Number of rows, columns or diagonals with one X and no O’s
• Z = Number of rows, columns or diagonals with two O’s and no X’s

• Y = Number of rows, columns or diagonals with one O and no X’s

Evaluation Function
Evaluation Function
• (3X + O) – (3Z + Y)

X O X

X O O X X O

X O O X X O O

Evaluation Function
Evaluation Function
• e(n) =(number of rows, columns and diagonals available to Max) - (number
of rows, columns and diagonals available to Min)

X O O X X

e(n) = 6 - 4 = 2 e(n) = 4 - 3 = 1

Another Evaluation Function

Another Evaluation Function
• The minimax algorithm computes the minimax decision from the current state.
• It uses a simple recursive computation of the minimax values of each successor
state:
• directly implementing the defining equations.
• The recursion proceeds all the way down to the leaves of the tree.
• Then the minimax values are backed up through the tree as the recursion
unwinds.

The minimax algorithm

The minimax algorithm
• The algorithm first recurs down to the tree bottom-left nodes
• and uses the Utility function on them to discover that their values are 3, 12 and
8.

The minimax algorithm

The minimax algorithm
 Tic Tac Toe Example
Tic Tac Toe Example
 Tic Tac Toe Example
Tic Tac Toe Example
 Tic Tac Toe Example
Tic Tac Toe Example
• For real games the time cost of minimax is totally impractical, but this
algorithm serves as the basis:
• for the mathematical analysis of games and
• for more practical algorithms
• Problem with minimax search:
• The number of game states it has to examine is exponential in the number of
moves.
• Unfortunately, the exponent can’t be eliminated, but it can be cut in half.

The minimax algorithm: problems

The minimax algorithm: problems
• It is possible to compute the correct minimax decision without looking at
every node in the game tree.
• Alpha-beta pruning allows to eliminate large parts of the tree from
consideration, without influencing the final decision.

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• Alpha-beta pruning gets its name from two parameters.
• They describe bounds on the values that appear anywhere along the
path under consideration:
• α = the value of the best (i.e., highest value) choice found so far along
the path for MAX
• β = the value of the best (i.e., lowest value) choice found so far along
the path for MIN

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• Alpha-beta search updates the values of α and β as it goes along.
• It prunes the remaining branches at a node (i.e., terminates the recursive
call)
• as soon as the value of the current node is known to be worse than the current
α or β value for MAX or MIN, respectively.

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• The leaves below B have the values 3, 12 and 8.
• The value of B is exactly 3.
• It can be inferred that the value at the root is at least 3, because MAX has a
choice worth 3.

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• C, which is a MIN node, has a value of at most 2.
• But B is worth 3, so MAX would never choose C.
• Therefore, there is no point in looking at the other successors of C.

B C

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• D, which is a MIN node, is worth at most 14.
• This is still higher than MAX’s best alternative (i.e., 3), so D’s other successors
are explored.

B C D

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• The second successor of D is worth 5, so the exploration continues.

B C D

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• The third successor is worth 2, so now D is worth exactly 2.
• MAX’s decision at the root is to move to B, giving a value of 3

B C D

Alpha-beta pruning
Alpha-beta pruning
• Worst-Case
• branches are ordered so that no pruning takes place. In this case alpha-
beta gives no improvement over exhaustive search

• Best-Case
• each player’s best move is the left-most child (i.e., evaluated first)
• in practice, performance is closer to best rather than worst-case

Effectiveness of Alpha-Beta Search

Effectiveness of Alpha-Beta Search
• Pruning does not affect final results
• Entire subtrees can be pruned.
• Good move ordering improves effectiveness of pruning

Alpha-Beta Pruning
Alpha-Beta Pruning
Example
-which nodes can be pruned?

3 4 1 2 7 8 5 6
 Max
-which nodes can be pruned?
Answer: NONE! Because the most favorable
nodes for both are explored last (i.e., in the
diagram, are on the right-hand side).
Min

Max

5 6
3 4 1 2 7 8

Answer to Example
 -which nodes can be pruned?

3 4
6 5 8 7 2 1

Second Example
 Max -which nodes can be pruned?
Answer: LOTS! Because the most favorable
nodes for both are explored first (i.e., in the
diagram, are on the left-hand side).
Min

Max

3 4
6 5 8 7 2 1

Second Example
 Questions

Questions Session
Questions Session