Supporting Start-to-Finish Development of Knowledge Bases

Abstract

Developing knowledge bases using knowledge-acquisition tools is difficult because each stage of development requires performing a distinct knowledge-acquisition task. This paper describes these different tasks and surveys current tools that perform them. It also addresses two issues confronting tools for start-to-finish development of knowledge bases. The first issue is how to support multiple stages of development. This paper describes Protos, a knowledge-acquisition tool that adjusts the training it expects and assistance it provides as its knowledge grows. The second issue is how to integrate new information into a large knowledge base. This issue is addressed in the description of a second tool, KI, that evaluates new information to determine its consequences for existing knowledge.