Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Lectures on Artificial Intelligence CS364

Introduction to Knowledge Representation
13th September 2005
Dr Bogdan L. Vrusias
[email protected]

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Contents

Defining Knowledge Representation

Knowledge Representation Schemes
Semantic Networks
Taxonomy
Ontology

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Knowledge Representation
'A representation is a set of conventions about how to
describe a class of things. A description makes use of the
conventions of a representation to describe some particular
thing.' (Winston 1992:16).
'Good representations make important objects and relations
explicit, expose natural constraints, and bring objects and
relations together' (ibid: 45)
The representation principle:
Once a problem is described using an appropriate representation,
the problem is almost solved.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Starting with an Example

The Farmer, The Fox, The Goose and The Grain:

The farmer must get a fox, a goose and a sack of grain across a
river, however his boat is small and he can only carry one thing at
a time. His problem is that if he leaves the fox with the goose the
goose will be eaten, and if he leaves the goose with the grain, the
grain will be eaten

A good representation makes it easier for us to solve the

problem:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Draw possible safe combinations in a diagram.

Arrange appropriate combinations in order.
Link appropriate arrangements to represent boat trips.
Problem is solved!

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Farmer
Fox
Goose
Grain

Grain

Farmer
Goose
Grain

Fox
Farmer
Goose

Fox

Fox
Grain

Farmer
Fox
Grain

Goose

Farmer
Goose

Farmer
Goose

Goose

Farmer
Fox
Grain

Fox
Grain

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Fox

Farmer
Fox
Goose

Farmer
Goose
Grain

Grain

Bogdan L. Vrusias

Farmer
Goose
Fox
Grain

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Knowledge Representation Schemes

A number of knowledge representation schemes (or formalisms) have
been used to represent the knowledge of humans in a systematic
manner. This knowledge is represented in a knowledge base such that
it can be retrieved for solving problems. Amongst the well-established
knowledge representation schemes are:

Production Rules
Semantic Networks
Frames
Conceptual Dependency Grammar
Conceptual Graphs
Ontology
Predicate and Modal Logic
Conceptual or Terminological Logics
XML / RDF

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Networks
Ross Quillian (1966 and 1968) was among the early AI
workers to develop a computational model which
represented 'concepts' as hierarchical networks.
This model was amended with some additional
psychological assumptions to characterise the structure of
[human] semantic memory.

13th

Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Networks
Collins and Quillian (1969) proposed that:
Concepts can be represented as hierarchies of interconnected concept nodes (e.g. animal, bird, canary)
Any concept has a number of associated attributes at a given level
(e.g. animal --> has skin; eats etc.)
Some concept nodes are superordinates of other nodes (e.g.
animal > bird) and some are subordinates (canary < bird)

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Networks
For reasons of cognitive economy, subordinates inherit
all the attributes of their superordinate concepts.
Some instances of a concept are excepted from the
attributes that help [humans] to define the superordinates
(e.g. ostrich is excepted from flying)
Various [psychological] processes search these hierarchies
for information about the concepts represented.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Network Example

canary
can sing, is yellow

bird

is-a

can fly, has wings,

has feathers

ostrich

animal
can breathe, can eat,
has skin

is-a
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is-a

is-a

fish
can swim, has fins, has gills

runs fast, cannot fly,

is tall

salmon
lays eggs; swims upstream,
is pink, is edible

Bogdan L. Vrusias

is-a

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Network Example

From the above taxonomic organisation of knowledge about a number
of different animals, one can conclude, by 'inheriting properties
down the taxonomy', that canaries, ostriches and salmon all have skin
and can breathe.
But we as humans can also make exceptions to inherited properties in
that we can represent an not-flying bird in a (sub-) hierarchy of birds
by simply noting the exception, can't fly.
Collins and Quillian carried out a number of tests on human subjects
and found that the subjects recognise propositions lower down the
hierarchy (canary is a yellow bird) more readily than propositions
higher up the hierarchy (canary has skin).

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Defining Inheritance
AI researchers have refined the notion of inheritance:
It is called a specialised inferencing technique 'for representing
properties of classes, exceptions to inherited properties, multiple
superclasses, and structured concepts with specific relations
among the structural elements' (Touretzky 1992:690).

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Semantic Networks
A semantic network is a structure for representing knowledge as a
pattern of interconnected nodes and arcs. Nodes in the net represent
concepts of entities, attributes, events, values. Arcs in the network
represent relationships that hold between the concepts.
A semantic network is a graph theoretic data structure whose nodes
represent word senses and whose arcs express semantic relationships
between these word senses.
Quillian gave an account, perhaps first used by a computer scientist, of
the associate features of human memory that incorporated a spreading
activation model of computation.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Networks and 'Meaning' Representation

The biosystematic notions of taxonomies, where the
concept of superordinates and subordinates plays a major
role on the knowledge representation literature.
TAXONOMY OF LIFE: The taxonomic organisation of
species in a hierarchical structure:
Kingdom > Phylum (division in botany) > Class > Order > Family
> Genus > Species

Carolus Linneaus (c.18th century Swedish botanist)

devised the system of binomial nomenclature used for
naming species:
each species has a two-part Latin name, formed by appending a
specific epithet to the genus name.
The latter is capitalised and both parts italicised.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Modern Taxonomy Example

DOG

SUGAR
MAPLE

BREAD
MOULD

INTESTINAL
BACTERIUM

POND ALGAE

KINGDOM

Animalia
(animals)

Plantae (plants) Fungi (fungi)

Prokaryotae
(bacteria)

Protoctista (algae,
protozoa, slim
moulds)

PHYLUM

Chordata

Magnoliophyta

Zygomycota

Omnibacteria

Chlorophyta

CLASS

Mammalia

Rosidae

Zygomycetes

Enterobacteria

Euconjugatae

ORDER

Carnivora

Sapindales

Macorales

Eubacteriales

Zygnematales

FAMILY

Canidae

Aceraceae

Mucoraceae

(E. coli does not

have a family
classification)

Zygnemataceae

GENUS

Canis

Acer

Rhizopus

Escherichia

Spirogyra

SPECIES

C. familiaris

A.saccharum

R. stolonifer

E. Coli

S. crassa

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Representation and Biosystematics

Work in knowledge representation has been influenced by
key notions in biosystematics.
However, there are crucial differences between what a
taxonomist does and a knowledge engineer does.
The key difference is that of the intended audience in the
two cases:
for the taxonomist the audience is intelligent and human
and for the knowledge engineer the primary 'audience' is a
computer system, or more accurately the representation program.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Ontology
Definition:
The science or study of being; that department of metaphysics
which relates to the being or essence of things, or to being in the
abstract. (OED online, http://www.oed.com/)

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Ontology
AI experts, like Tom Gruber, suggest that:
'In the context of knowledge sharing, I use the term ontology to
mean a specification of a conceptualization. That is, an ontology is
a description (like a formal specification of a program) of the
concepts and relationships that can exist for an agent or a
community of agents. This definition is consistent with the usage
of ontology as set-of-concept-definitions, but more general. And it
is certainly a different sense of the word than its use in
philosophy.' (Cited from www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-anontology.html; site visited 12/09/05)

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Ontology
Also Tom Gruber, suggest that:
'An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization. The term
is borrowed from philosophy, where an Ontology is a systematic account
of Existence. For AI systems, what "exists" is that which can be
represented. When the knowledge of a domain is represented in a
declarative formalism, the set of objects that can be represented is called
the universe of discourse. This set of objects, and the describable
relationships among them, are reflected in the representational vocabulary
with which a knowledge-based program represents knowledge. Thus, in
the context of AI, we can describe the ontology of a program by defining
a set of representational terms. In such an ontology, definitions associate
the names of entities in the universe of discourse (e.g., classes, relations,
functions, or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the
names mean, and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and wellformed use of these terms. Formally, an ontology is the statement of a
logical theory.' (Cited from www-ksl.stanford.edu/kst/what-is-anontology.html; site visited 12/09/05)

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Ontology as a Specification Mechanism

A body of formally represented knowledge is based on a
conceptualization: the objects, concepts, and other entities
that are assumed to exist in some area of interest and the
relationships that hold among them (Genesereth &
Nilsson, 1987).
A conceptualization is an abstract, simplified view of the
world that we wish to represent for some purpose.
Every knowledge base, knowledge-based system, or
knowledge-level agent is committed to some
conceptualization, explicitly or implicitly.

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Ontology

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Bogdan L. Vrusias

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Artificial Intelligence CS364

Knowledge Representation

Closing

Questions???
Remarks???
Comments!!!
Evaluation!

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