Automated reasoning is a field of computer science and artificial intelligence that aims to design software systems that can think, reason, and draw conclusions. Automated reasoning uses techniques from various branches of mathematics, logic, and artificial intelligence while analyzing complex, real-world problems.
The field of automated reasoning has its roots in mathematical logic, a branch of mathematics concerned with the boundaries of proper reasoning. Early research in the field focused on developing logical systems that could correctly reason through mathematical and other symbolic problems. As computers grew more powerful, researchers realized that these same systems could be used to reason through more complex problems.
In recent years, automated reasoning systems have become an important part of automated computer services such as intelligent personal assistants and expert systems. These systems are designed to use automated reasoning to understand and solve problems posed to them by humans. They may reason through problems relying on large databases of facts, or by using heuristics, a set of rules of thumb, to make decisions.
Automated reasoning is an active and rapidly developing field of research, and is often seen as a key component of artificial general intelligence. Systems today can reason through symbolic problems, causal problems, and non-symbolic problems such as natural language processing. As the technology and field develops, automated reasoning systems will become increasingly sophisticated and powerful, allowing machines to better assist or even replace humans in many kinds of tasks.
