Quality Measures and Assurance for AI Software

This report is concerned with the application of software quality and assurance techniques to AI software. It describes work performed for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under contract NAS1 17067 (Task 5) and is also available as a NASA Contractor Report. The report is divided into three parts. In Part I we review existing software quality assurance measures and techniques–those that have been developed for, and applied to, conventional software. This part, which provides a fairly comprehensive overview of software reliability and metrics, static and dynamic testing, and formal specification and verification, may be of interest to those unconcerned with AI software. In Part II, we consider the characteristics of AI-based software, the applicability and potential utility of measures and techniques identified in the first part, and we review those few methods that have been developed specifically for AI-based software. In Part III of this report, we present our assessment and recommendations for the further exploration of this important area. An extensive bibliography with 194 entries is provided.