Page 234 - DCAP310_INTRODUCTION_TO_ARTIFICIAL_INTELLIGENCE_AND_EXPERT_SYSTEMS

Introduction to Artificial Intelligence & Expert Systems

Notes Within computer science, the term is used in the analysis of computer languages, referring to the
syntactic analysis of the input code into its component parts in order to facilitate the writing of
compilers and interpreters.

12.4.3 Knowledge Representation (KR)

A knowledge representation is most fundamentally a surrogate, a substitute for the thing itself,
used to enable an entity to determine consequences by thinking rather than acting, i.e., by
reasoning about the world rather than taking action in it. It is a fragmentary theory of intelligent
reasoning, expressed in terms of three components:

(i) the representation’s fundamental conception of intelligent reasoning;
(ii) the set of inferences the representation sanctions; and
(iii) the set of inferences it recommends.
It is a medium for pragmatically efficient computation, i.e., the computational environment in
which thinking is accomplished. One contribution to this pragmatic efficiency is supplied by the
guidance a representation provides for organizing information so as to facilitate making the
recommended inferences. It is a medium of human expression, i.e., a language in which we say
things about the world. Understanding the roles and acknowledging their diversity has several
useful consequences. Firstly, each role requires something slightly different from a representation;
each accordingly leads to an interesting and different set of properties we want a representation
to have. Secondly, we believe the roles provide a framework useful for characterizing a wide
variety of representations. We suggest that the fundamental “mindset” of a representation can
be captured by understanding how it views each of the roles, and that doing so reveals essential
similarities and differences.

Thirdly, we believe that some previous disagreements about representation are usefully
disentangled when all five roles are given appropriate consideration. We demonstrate this by
revisiting and dissecting the early arguments concerning frames and logic.

Finally, we believe that viewing representations in this way has consequences for both research
and practice. For research, this view provides one direct answer to a question of fundamental
significance in the field. It also suggests adopting a broad perspective on what’s important about
a representation, and it makes the case that one significant part of the representation endeavor –
capturing and representing the richness of the natural world – is receiving insufficient attention.
We believe this view can also improve practice by reminding practitioners about the inspirations
that are the important sources of power for a variety of representations.

Self Assessment

State whether the following statements are true or false:
10. Computers are very fast and powerful machines.

11. Semantic and pragmatic analysis make up the most simple phase of language processing
as they build up on results of all the above mentioned disciplines.
12. The term parsing comes from Latin pars, meaning part (of speech).

12.5 Natural Language Generalization

Generalization and memory are part of natural language understanding. The generalization
process includes the retrieval of relevant examples from long-term memory so that the concepts

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