The document discusses expert systems, which are computer systems that emulate the decision-making ability of a human expert. It describes the typical architecture of an expert system, which includes a knowledge base, inference engine, user interface, explanation facility, and knowledge acquisition system. It provides details on key components like the knowledge base, which stores rules and data, and the inference engine, which applies rules and reasoning to derive conclusions. Specific expert systems are discussed like MYCIN for medical diagnosis, DART for computer fault diagnosis, and XCON for configuring DEC computer systems. The roles of knowledge engineers and domain experts in developing expert systems are also outlined.