Agents are one of the most important elements involved with the development of the Semantic Web.
Although the term may sound sinister, it isn’t.
It actually means a piece of software that works proactively and independently (Luger, 2002). In terms of the Semantic Web, if a user had a personal agent that gathers requirements from the user. It is then able to search the web and communicate with other agents. The information would then been gathered from the other agents and presented back to the user. Still allowing the final choice or decisions with the human.
It is important to realise that although many of the underlying factors surrounding the Semantic Web have evolved from the study of AI, there is a difference between the two. The concept behind AI is to develop an intelligent agent exhibiting human-level intelligence; the goal of the Semantic Web is to assist human users in day-day online activities.
The Semantic Web is to realise this by using partially intelligent agents. Still allowing humans to draw conclusions based on the content. This means that the current AI technology can be used in realising the Semantic Web vision. Instead of having the worry of creating human intelligent systems or agents.
