Knowledge representation plays a crucial role in artificial intelligence. It has to do with the ‘thinking’ of AI systems and contributes to their intelligent behavior. Knowledge Representation is a radical and new approach to AI that is changing the world. Let’s look into what it is and its applications.
Understanding Knowledge Representation and its Use
Knowledge Representation is a field of artificial intelligence concerned with presenting real-world information in a form that the computer can ‘understand’ and use to ‘solve’ real-life problems or ‘handle’ real-life tasks.
The ability of machines to think and act like humans, such as understanding, interpreting, and reasoning, constitutes knowledge representation. It is related to designing agents that can think and ensure that such thinking can constructively contribute to the agent’s behavior.
Simply, knowledge representation allows machines to behave like humans by empowering an AI machine to learn from available information, experience, or experts. However, choosing the right type of knowledge representation is essential to ensure business success with AI.
Four Fundamental Types of Knowledge Representation
In knowledge representation in artificial intelligence, knowledge can be represented in various ways depending on the structure of the knowledge, the perspective of the designer, or even the type of internal structure used. An effective knowledge representation should be rich enough to include the knowledge required to solve the problem. It should be natural, compact, and maintainable.
Here are the four fundamental types of knowledge representation techniques:
1. Logical Representation
Knowledge and logical reasoning play a huge role in artificial intelligence. However, you often require more than general and powerful methods to ensure intelligent behavior. Formal logic is the most helpful tool in this area. It is a language with unambiguous representation guided by specific concrete rules. Knowledge representation relies heavily on more than what logic is used but the logic method used to understand or decode knowledge.
It allows designers to lay down specific vital communication rules to give and acquire information from agents with minimum errors in communication. Different rules of logic allow you to represent different things resulting in an efficient inference. Hence, the knowledge acquired by logical agents will be definite, meaning it will be true or false.
Although working with logical representation is challenging, it forms the basis for programming languages and enables you to construct logical reasoning.
2. Semantic Network
A semantic network allows you to store knowledge as a graphic network with nodes and arcs representing objects and their relationships. It could represent physical objects or concepts or even situations. A semantic network is generally used to represent data or reveal structure. It is also used to support conceptual editing and navigation.
A semantic network is simple and easy to implement and understand. It is more natural than logical representation. It allows you to categorize objects in various forms and then link those objects. It also has greater expressiveness than logical representation.
3. Frame Representation
A frame is a collection of attributes and their associated values, which describes an entity in the real world. It is a record-like structure consisting of slots and their values. Slots could be of varying sizes and types. These slots have names and values. Or they could have subfields named facets. They allow you to put constraints on the frames.
There is no restraint or limit on the value of facets a slot could have, the number of facets a slot could have, or the number of slots a frame could have. Since a single frame is not very useful, building a system that collects connected frames will be more beneficial. It is flexible and can be used by various AI applications.
4. Production Rules
Production rule-based representation has many properties essential for knowledge representation. It consists of production rules, working memory, and recognize-act-cycle. It is also called condition-action rules. According to the current database, if the condition of a rule is true, the action associated with the rule is performed.
Although production rules lack precise semantics for the rules and are only sometimes efficient, the rules lead to a higher degree of modularity. And it is the most expressive knowledge representation system.
Gain the Benefits of Knowledge Representation
Knowledge representation enables artificial intelligence systems to function appropriately with near-human intelligence, even handling tasks that require a huge amount of knowledge. The increasing use of natural language also makes it human-like in its responses. Making the right choice in the knowledge representation you must incorporate will ensure you get the best out of your artificial intelligence system.
