What is Knowledge?

The data is collection of facts. The information is organized as data and

facts about the task domain. Data, information, and past
experience combined together are termed as knowledge.

Components of Knowledge Base

The knowledge base of an ES is a store of both, factual and heuristic

knowledge.

Factual Knowledge − It is the information widely accepted by the

Knowledge Engineers and scholars in the task domain.

Heuristic Knowledge − It is about practice, accurate judgement, one’s

ability of evaluation, and guessing.

Knowledge Acquisition
The success of any expert system majorly depends on the quality,
completeness, and accuracy of the information stored in the knowledge
base.

The knowledge base is formed by readings from various experts, scholars,

and the Knowledge Engineers. The knowledge engineer is a person with
the qualities of empathy, quick learning, and case analyzing skills.

He acquires information from subject expert by recording, interviewing,

and observing him at work, etc. He then categorizes and organizes the
information in a meaningful way, in the form of IF-THEN-ELSE rules, to
be used by interference machine. The knowledge engineer also monitors
the development of the ES.
Forward Chaining
It is a strategy of an expert system to answer the question, “What can
happen next?”

Here, the Inference Engine follows the chain of conditions and derivations
and finally deduces the outcome. It considers all the facts and rules, and
sorts them before concluding to a solution.

This strategy is followed for working on conclusion, result, or effect. For

example, prediction of share market status as an effect of changes in
interest rates.

Backward Chaining

With this strategy, an expert system finds out the answer to the
question, “Why this happened?”

On the basis of what has already happened, the Inference Engine tries to
find out which conditions could have happened in the past for this result.
This strategy is followed for finding out cause or reason. For example,
diagnosis of blood cancer in humans.

Types of Knowledge in AI

1. Declarative Knowledge

 Declarative knowledge refers to facts and information that describe

the world, answering the "what" type of questions.

 Example: Knowing that Paris is the capital of France.

 This knowledge is often stored in databases or knowledge bases and
expressed in logical statements, forming the foundation for more
complex reasoning and problem-solving in AI systems.

2. Procedural Knowledge

 Procedural knowledge is the knowledge of how to perform tasks or

processes, answering the "how" type of questions.

 Example: Steps to solve a mathematical problem or the procedure to

start a car.

 This knowledge is embedded in algorithms or control structures,

enabling AI systems to execute tasks, perform actions, and solve
problems step-by-step.

3. Meta-Knowledge

 Meta-knowledge is knowledge about knowledge, understanding

which types of knowledge to apply in different situations.

 Example: Knowing when to use a specific algorithm based on the

problem at hand.

 Crucial for systems that need to adapt or optimize their performance,

meta-knowledge helps in selecting the most appropriate strategy or
knowledge base for a given problem.

4. Heuristic Knowledge

 Heuristic knowledge includes rules of thumb, educated guesses, and

intuitive judgments derived from experience.

 Example: Using an educated guess to approximate a solution when

time is limited.
 Often used in problem-solving and decision-making processes where
exact solutions are not feasible, helping AI systems to arrive at good-
enough solutions quickly.

5. Structural Knowledge

 Structural knowledge refers to the understanding of how different

pieces of knowledge are organized and related to each other.

 Example: Understanding the hierarchy of concepts in a taxonomy or

the relationships between different entities in a semantic network.

 This knowledge is essential for organizing information within AI

systems, allowing for efficient retrieval, reasoning, and inferencing
based on the relationships and structures defined.

What are the difference between Procedural Knowledge

Declarative Knowledge?

Procedural Knowledge Declarative Knowledge

Knowledge about how to perform Knowledge about what something

tasks or procedures. is or facts about it.

Action-oriented; involves skills Fact-based; involves concepts,

and processes. facts, or rules.

Represented as steps, algorithms, Represented as statements, facts,

or actions. or descriptions.

Driving a car, cooking a recipe, Knowing the capital of France,

solving an equation. definitions of AI terms.
Stored as procedures or scripts in Stored as static data or facts.
the brain/system.

Acquired through practice and Acquired through study and

repetition. observation.

Encoded as algorithms, functions, Encoded as data, knowledge bases,

or programs. or facts.

Used in expert systems, robotics, Used in databases, ontologies,

procedural programming. rule-based systems.

A robot learning to walk through A system knowing Newton’s laws

reinforcement learning. of motion.

What are the difference between Heuristic Knowledge

Structural Knowledge?

Heuristic Knowledge Structural Knowledge

Knowledge based on experience, Knowledge about the organization,

intuition, or rules of thumb used to relationships, and structure of a
solve problems. system or concept.

Informal, experiential, and often

approximate. Formal, logical, and systematic.

Helps in problem-solving by Helps in understanding how

providing shortcuts or simplified components relate and work
approaches. together.
 Represented as rules, guidelines, or Represented as schemas, models,
heuristics. or diagrams.

Gained through experience, trial- Gained through systematic study

and-error, or observation. or analysis.

Used in expert systems, decision- Used in system modeling, database

making algorithms, and design, and knowledge graphs.
approximate reasoning.

Quick, flexible, and adaptable in Provides deep understanding and

uncertain scenarios. detailed insights.

May lead to errors; not always Can be complex and hard to apply
optimal or precise. in dynamic situations.

A chess program using "control the Understanding how neural

center of the board" as a heuristic. network layers process input data.

Knowledge based agents in AI

Knowledge-Based System

 A knowledge-based system is a system that uses artificial intelligence

techniques to store and reason with knowledge. The knowledge is
typically represented in the form of rules or facts, which can be used
to draw conclusions or make decisions.

 One of the key benefits of a knowledge-based system is that it can

help to automate decision-making processes. For example, a
knowledge-based system could be used to diagnose a medical
 condition, by reasoning over a set of rules that describe the symptoms
and possible causes of the condition.

 Another benefit of knowledge-based systems is that they can be used

to explain their decisions to humans. This can be useful, for example,
in a customer service setting, where a knowledge-based system can
help a human agent understand why a particular decision was made.

 Knowledge-based systems are a type of artificial intelligence and have

been used in a variety of applications including medical diagnosis,
expert systems, and decision support systems.

Knowledge-Based System in Artificial Intelligence

 An intelligent agent needs knowledge about the real world to make

decisions and reasoning to act efficiently.

 Knowledge-based agents are those agents who have the capability of

maintaining an internal state of knowledge, reason over that
knowledge, update their knowledge after observations and take
action. These agents can represent the world with some formal
representation and act intelligently.

Why use a knowledge base?

 A knowledge base inference is required for updating knowledge for

an agent to learn with experiences and take action as per the
knowledge.

 Inference means deriving new sentences from old. The inference-

based system allows us to add a new sentence to the knowledge base.
A sentence is a proposition about the world. The inference system
applies logical rules to the KB to deduce new information.
 The inference system generates new facts so that an agent can update
the KB. An inference system works mainly in two rules which are
given:

o Forward chaining

o Backward chaining

Various levels of knowledge-based agents

A knowledge-based agent can be viewed at different levels which are
given below:

1. Knowledge level

Knowledge level is the first level of knowledge-based agent, and in this

level, we need to specify what the agent knows, and what the agent goals
are. With these specifications, we can fix its behavior. For example,
suppose an automated taxi agent needs to go from a station A to station
B, and he knows the way from A to B, so this comes at the knowledge
level.

2. Logical level

At this level, we understand that how the knowledge representation of

knowledge is stored. At this level, sentences are encoded into different
logics. At the logical level, an encoding of knowledge into logical
sentences occurs. At the logical level we can expect to the automated taxi
agent to reach to the destination B.

3. Implementation level

This is the physical representation of logic and knowledge. At the

implementation level agent perform actions as per logical and knowledge
level. At this level, an automated taxi agent actually implement his
knowledge and logic so that he can reach to the destination.

Knowledge-based agents have explicit representation of knowledge

that can be reasoned. They maintain internal state of knowledge, reason
over it, update it and perform actions accordingly. These agents act
intelligently according to requirements.

Knowledge based agents give the current situation in the form of

sentences. They have complete knowledge of current situation of mini-
world and its surroundings. These agents manipulate knowledge to infer
new things at “Knowledge level”.