Unit 2

Knowledge Representation
Knowledge representation can be explained as the way artificial intelligence represents
knowledge not with the help of stored data in the system but with prior experiences and
knowledge to act like an intelligent human.

What knowledge needs to be represented?

Below are the different kinds of knowledge that need to be represented.

Object

There are many objects present in the human world. All information we have, related to all the
objects, can be considered as a type of knowledge. For instance, a bus has wheels and a guitar
has strings, etc.

Events

Our understanding of the world is based on the idea we have about the various incidents that
have occurred in our world. Thus, events refer to every action that happens in our world.

Performance

The term is used to explain human behavior or the way they perform certain actions during
different situations.

Meta-knowledge

Knowledge about things we are already aware of.

Facts

The reality of the actual world and what we stand for.

Knowledge base

Knowledge Base abbreviated as KB is the most significant part element of knowledge-based

agents. It refers to a set of information about any discipline, field, etc. For example, a
knowledge base on road construction.
Types of knowledge representation

There are different types of knowledge which are categorized as follows:

Declarative knowledge

It refers to the knowledge that lets us describe our world and it contains everything including
ideas, facts, objects, etc… and therefore deals with the description of things.

Procedural knowledge

Also referred to as imperative knowledge. It refers to more complex concepts (how things work
or behave) than declarative knowledge. Therefore, this knowledge is used to complete any task
with specific rules, processes, and agendas and thus makes the system work efficiently. Also,
this kind of knowledge relies on the task we are trying to finish.

Meta-knowledge

Meta-knowledge, as mentioned above, is a set of cognitive knowledge when combined. So, this
is knowledge about different types of knowledge.

Heuristic knowledge

Heuristic knowledge is the knowledge imparted by experts of particular domains, topics, and
areas, which they have acquired after years of experience. This kind of knowledge enables you
to take a better approach to specific problems and make decisions.

Structural knowledge

This type of knowledge serves as the basic form of knowledge for solving problems in the real
world and helps to establish a connection between ideas or objects and their description.

Properties of knowledge representation

There are certain properties or requirements for a good knowledge representation system. This
system should demonstrate some of the features that help us to evaluate the system. These
properties are listed below:

Representational adequacy
Adequacy and the ability to make the AI system understand are the important assets of a
knowledge representation system, which means it represents all the knowledge necessary to
manage a particular field or domain.

Inferential adequacy

It refers to the flexibility of the knowledge representation system to deal with the existing
knowledge to pave the way for new knowledge.

Acquisitional efficiency

The ultimate property of the knowledge representation system is its ability to automatically
acquire new knowledge, enabling AI to integrate into its existing knowledge and, as a result,
become more efficient and productive.

Inferential efficiency

With the presence of existing old knowledge, the system of representation cannot include new
knowledge but it can put in this knowledge efficiently and without hindrance.

The Connection between knowledge and intelligence

Knowledge of the actual world plays an important role in intelligence, as well as in the creation
of artificial intelligence. When it comes to expressing intelligent behavior in AI agents,
knowledge plays an essential part. An agent cannot function accurately, without enough
knowledge or experience of certain inputs. For example, if you have to interact with a person
and you are unable to understand his language, then definitely you will not be able to give a
response or deliver any action. This is the same as with the intelligent behavior of the agents. A
decision-maker works by discovering the environment and applying knowledge. However,
without the knowledge component, it cannot exhibit intellectual behavior.

Techniques of knowledge representation

There are mainly four ways of knowledge representation which are given as follows:

1. Logical Representation
 2. Semantic Network Representation
3. Frame Representation
4. Production Rules

1. Logical Representation

Logical representation is a language with some concrete rules which deals with propositions
and has no ambiguity in representation. Logical representation means drawing a conclusion
based on various conditions. This representation lays down some important communication
rules. It consists of precisely defined syntax and semantics which supports the sound inference.
Each sentence can be translated into logics using syntax and semantics.

Syntax:

o Syntaxes are the rules which decide how we can construct legal sentences in the logic.
o It determines which symbol we can use in knowledge representation.
o How to write those symbols.

Semantics:

o Semantics are the rules by which we can interpret the sentence in the logic.
o Semantic also involves assigning a meaning to each sentence.
Logical representation can be categorised into mainly two logics:

a. Propositional Logics
b. Predicate logics

Advantages of logical representation:

1. Logical representation enables us to do logical reasoning.

2. Logical representation is the basis for the programming languages.

Disadvantages of logical Representation:

1. Logical representations have some restrictions and are challenging to work with.
2. Logical representation technique may not be very natural, and inference may not be so
efficient.

2. Semantic Network Representation

Semantic networks are alternative of predicate logic for knowledge representation. In Semantic
networks, we can represent our knowledge in the form of graphical networks. This network
consists of nodes representing objects and arcs which describe the relationship between those
objects. Semantic networks can categorize the object in different forms and can also link those
objects. Semantic networks are easy to understand and can be easily extended.Play Video

This representation consist of mainly two types of relations:

a. IS-A relation (Inheritance)

b. Kind-of-relation

Example: Following are some statements which we need to represent in the form of nodes and
arcs.

Statements:

a. Jerry is a cat.
b. Jerry is a mammal
c. Jerry is owned by Priya.
d. Jerry is brown colored.
 e. All Mammals are animal.

In the above diagram, we have represented the different type of knowledge in the form of
nodes and arcs. Each object is connected with another object by some relation.

Drawbacks in Semantic representation:

1. Semantic networks take more computational time at runtime as we need to traverse the
complete network tree to answer some questions. It might be possible in the worst case
scenario that after traversing the entire tree, we find that the solution does not exist in
this network.
2. Semantic networks try to model human-like memory (Which has 1015 neurons and
links) to store the information, but in practice, it is not possible to build such a vast
semantic network.
3. These types of representations are inadequate as they do not have any equivalent
quantifier, e.g., for all, for some, none, etc.
4. Semantic networks do not have any standard definition for the link names.
5. These networks are not intelligent and depend on the creator of the system.

Advantages of Semantic network:

1. Semantic networks are a natural representation of knowledge.

2. Semantic networks convey meaning in a transparent manner.
 3. These networks are simple and easily understandable.

3. Frame Representation

A frame is a record like structure which consists of a collection of attributes and its values to
describe an entity in the world. Frames are the AI data structure which divides knowledge into
substructures by representing stereotypes situations. It consists of a collection of slots and slot
values. These slots may be of any type and sizes. Slots have names and values which are called
facets.

Facets: The various aspects of a slot is known as Facets. Facets are features of frames which
enable us to put constraints on the frames. Example: IF-NEEDED facts are called when data of
any particular slot is needed. A frame may consist of any number of slots, and a slot may
include any number of facets and facets may have any number of values. A frame is also known
as slot-filter knowledge representation in artificial intelligence.

Frames are derived from semantic networks and later evolved into our modern-day classes and
objects. A single frame is not much useful. Frames system consist of a collection of frames
which are connected. In the frame, knowledge about an object or event can be stored together
in the knowledge base. The frame is a type of technology which is widely used in various
applications including Natural language processing and machine visions.

Example: 1

Let's take an example of a frame for a book

Slots Filters

Title Artificial Intelligence

Genre Computer Science

Author Peter Norvig

Edition Third Edition

Year 1996

Page 1152

Example 2:
Let's suppose we are taking an entity, Peter. Peter is an engineer as a profession, and his age is
25, he lives in city London, and the country is England. So following is the frame representation
for this:

Slots Filter

Name Peter

Profession Doctor

Age 25

Marital status Single

Weight 78

Advantages of frame representation:

1. The frame knowledge representation makes the programming easier by grouping the
related data.
2. The frame representation is comparably flexible and used by many applications in AI.
3. It is very easy to add slots for new attribute and relations.
4. It is easy to include default data and to search for missing values.
5. Frame representation is easy to understand and visualize.

Disadvantages of frame representation:

1. In frame system inference mechanism is not be easily processed.

2. Inference mechanism cannot be smoothly proceeded by frame representation.
3. Frame representation has a much generalized approach.

4. Production Rules

Production rules system consist of (condition, action) pairs which mean, "If condition then
action". It has mainly three parts:

o The set of production rules

o Working Memory
 o The recognize-act-cycle

In production rules agent checks for the condition and if the condition exists then production
rule fires and corresponding action is carried out. The condition part of the rule determines
which rule may be applied to a problem. And the action part carries out the associated
problem-solving steps. This complete process is called a recognize-act cycle.

The working memory contains the description of the current state of problems-solving and rule
can write knowledge to the working memory. This knowledge match and may fire other rules.

If there is a new situation (state) generates, then multiple production rules will be fired
together, this is called conflict set. In this situation, the agent needs to select a rule from these
sets, and it is called a conflict resolution.

Example:

o IF (at bus stop AND bus arrives) THEN action (get into the bus)
o IF (on the bus AND paid AND empty seat) THEN action (sit down).
o IF (on bus AND unpaid) THEN action (pay charges).
o IF (bus arrives at destination) THEN action (get down from the bus).

Advantages of Production rule:

1. The production rules are expressed in natural language.

2. The production rules are highly modular, so we can easily remove, add or modify an
individual rule.

Disadvantages of Production rule:

1. Production rule system does not exhibit any learning capabilities, as it does not store
the result of the problem for the future uses.
2. During the execution of the program, many rules may be active hence rule-based
production systems are inefficient.