A software agent is defined as I. A software developed for accomplishing a…
2014
A software agent is defined as
I. A software developed for accomplishing a given task.
II. A computer program which is capable of acting on behalf of the user in order to accomplish a given computational task.
III. An open source software for accomplishing a given task.
- A.
I
- B.
II
- C.
III
- D.
All of the above
Attempted by 129 students.
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: B
Correct definition:
'A computer program which is capable of acting on behalf of the user in order to accomplish a given computational task.' is the correct definition of a software agent because it emphasizes the agent's role in acting for a user and performing tasks autonomously.
Why the correct statement is right: Software agents typically show autonomy (they make decisions without constant user intervention), reactivity (they respond to changes), and goal-directed behavior (they pursue tasks on the user’s behalf).
Why the first statement is incomplete: Describing a program simply as software developed to accomplish a task is too broad and does not capture agent-specific properties such as acting on behalf of a user or autonomous behavior.
Why the third statement is incorrect: Whether software is open source or proprietary has no bearing on whether it is an agent; openness of source code is unrelated to agent capabilities.
Summary: The defining feature of a software agent is its ability to act on behalf of a user to accomplish computational tasks, not the general fact of being software or the software's licensing model.