Artificial Intelligence

Introduction to Knowledge Base Systems

Institute of Information and Communication Technology
University of Sindh, Jamshoro

Dr. Zeeshan Bhatti

BSSW-PIV
Chapter 4
By:DR.Dr.ZEESHAN
ZeeshanBHATTI
Bhatti

KBSS & KNOWLEDGE

What is a knowledge-based system?

A system which is built around a knowledge base. i.e. a collection of

knowledge, taken from a human, and stored in such a way that the system
can reason with it.

What is knowledge?

Knowledge is the sort of information that people use to solve problems.

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge includes:

facts, concepts, procedures, models, heuristics, examples.

Knowledge may be:

specific or general
exact or fuzzy
procedural or declarative

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

A KNOWLEDGE-BASED AGENT
A knowledge-based agent includes a knowledge base and an inference system.
A knowledge base is a set of representations of facts of the world.
Each individual representation is called a sentence.
The sentences are expressed in a knowledge representation language.
The agent operates as follows:

1. It TELLs the knowledge base what it perceives.

2. It ASKs the knowledge base what action it should perform.
3. It performs the chosen action.

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

ARCHITECTURE OF A
KNOWLEDGE-BASED AGENT
Knowledge Level.
The most abstract level: describe agent by saying what it knows.
Example: A taxi agent might know that the Golden Gate Bridge connects San Francisco with
the Marin County.

Logical Level.
The level at which the knowledge is encoded into sentences.
Example: Links(GoldenGateBridge, SanFrancisco, MarinCounty).

Implementation Level.
The physical representation of the sentences in the logical level.
Example: (links goldengatebridge sanfrancisco marincounty)

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EXPERT SYSTEMS
What is an expert system?
A particular kind of knowledge-based system
One in which the knowledge, stored in the knowledge base, has been taken
from an expert in some particular field.

Therefore, an expert system can, to a certain extent, act

as a substitute for the expert from whom the knowledge
was taken.

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is concerned with exploring such
aspects of human (and other animal) mental activity as:
understanding
creativity
perception
problem-solving
consciousness
using language

intelligence

by simulating them using computers.

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

It is therefore closely connected with such social

sciences as:

psychology
linguistics
philosophy

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APPLIED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

What is applied AI?
Applied AI is concerned with producing software which is
intelligent
It is intelligent in that it is based on what we know about
human reasoning and other mental abilities

We are therefore talking about a branch of advanced

computing - computer technology - rather than social
science

DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

KNOWLEDGE ENGINEERING
The term knowledge engineering is often used
to mean the process of

designing
building
installing

an expert system or other knowledge-based

system.
Some authors use the term to mean just the
knowledge acquisition phase.
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EXPERTS
An expert is an experienced practitioner in
his/her particular field. More than that, he/she is
a highly effective problem-solver and decisiontaker in that field.
Experts have three qualities:

They make good decisions

They make those decisions quickly
They are able to cope with a wide range of problems.

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EXPERTS AND EXPERT SYSTEMS

Note that:

The task that an expert system performs will generally be regarded

as difficult.
An expert system almost always operates in a rather narrow field of
knowledge. The field of knowledge is called the knowledge domain
of the system.
There are many fields where expert systems can usefully be built.
There are many fields where they cant.

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EXPERTS AND EXPERT SYSTEMS

Note also that an expert can usually
explain
and
justify

his/her decisions.

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REASONS FOR BUILDING AN E.S.

One might build an expert system for any or all
of the following reasons:

To archive an experts knowledge, to insure against the day when

he/she leaves, or retires, or dies.
To disseminate his/her knowledge, so that it is available in more
(possibly many more) places than the location of the expert.
To ensure uniformity of advice/decisions.
As a basis for training other specialists.

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REPRESENTATION, REASONING, AND LOGIC

The object of knowledge representation is to express knowledge in a
computer-tractable form, so that agents can perform well.
A knowledge representation language is defined by:

its syntax, which defines all possible sequences of symbols

that constitute sentences of the language.
Examples: Sentences in a book, bit patterns in computer memory.

its semantics, which determines the facts in the world to which

the sentences refer.
Each sentence makes a claim about the world.
An agent is said to believe a sentence about the world.

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DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI

THE CONNECTION BETWEEN

SENTENCES AND FACTS

Semantics maps sentences in logic to facts in the world.

The property of one fact following from another is mirrored
by the property of one sentence being entailed by another.

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SOUNDNESS AND COMPLETENESS

A sound inference method derives only entailed sentences.
Analogous to the property of completeness in search, a
complete inference method can derive any sentence that is
entailed.

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LOGIC AS A KR LANGUAGE

Multi-valued
Logic

Modal

Temporal

Non-monotonic
Logic

Higher Order
Probabilistic
Logic
Fuzzy
Logic

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First Order
Propositional Logic

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NO INDEPENDENT ACCESS TO THE WORLD

The reasoning agent often gets its knowledge about the facts of
the world as a sequence of logical sentences and must draw
conclusions only from them without independent access to the
world.

Thus it is very important that the agents reasoning is sound!

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SUMMARY
Intelligent agents need knowledge about the world for making good
decisions.
The knowledge of an agent is stored in a knowledge base in the form of
sentences in a knowledge representation language.

A knowledge-based agent needs a knowledge base and an inference

mechanism. It operates by storing sentences in its knowledge base,
inferring new sentences with the inference mechanism, and using them to
deduce which actions to take.
A representation language is defined by its syntax and semantics, which
specify the structure of sentences and how they relate to the facts of the
world.
The interpretation of a sentence is the fact to which it refers. If this fact is
part of the actual world, then the sentence is true.

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DR. ZEESHAN BHATTI