Symbolic Reasoning Under Uncertainty

Symbolic Reasoning
• The reasoning is the act of deriving a conclusion from certain properties using a given
methodology.
• The reasoning is a process of thinking; reasoning is logically arguing; reasoning is
drawing the inference.
• When a system is required to do something, that it has not been explicitly told how to do,
it must reason. It must figure out what it needs to know from what it already knows.
• Many types of Reasoning have been identified and recognized, but many questions
regarding their logical and computational properties still remain controversial.
• The popular methods of Reasoning include abduction, induction, model-based,
explanation and confirmation. All of them are intimately related to problems of belief
revision and theory development, knowledge absorption, discovery, and learning.
Logical Reasoning
• Logic is a language for reasoning. It is a collection of rules called Logic arguments, we
use when doing logical reasoning.
• The logic reasoning is the process of drawing conclusions from premises using rules of
inference.
• The study of logic divided into formal and informal logic. The formal logic is sometimes
called symbolic logic.
• Symbolic logic is the study of symbolic abstractions (construct) that capture the formal
features of logical inference by a formal system.
• The formal system consists of two components, a formal language plus a set of inference
rules.
• The formal system has axioms. Axiom is a sentence that is always true within the system.
• Sentences derived using the system’s axioms and rules of derivation called theorems.
• The Logical Reasoning is of our concern in AI.
Approaches to Reasoning
• There are three different approaches to reasoning under uncertainties.
1. Symbolic reasoning
2. Statistical reasoning
3. Fuzzy logic reasoning
Symbolic Reasoning
• The basis for intelligent mathematical software is the integration of the “power of
symbolic mathematical tools” with the suitable “proof technology”.
• Mathematical reasoning enjoys a property called monotonicity, that says, “If a conclusion
follows from given premises A, B, C… then it also follows from any larger set of
premises, as long as the original premises A, B, C.. included.”
• Moreover, Human reasoning is not monotonic.
• People arrive at conclusions only tentatively; based on partial or incomplete information,
reserve the right to retract those conclusions while they learn new facts. Such reasoning
non-monotonic, precisely because the set of accepted conclusions have become smaller
when the set of premises expanded.
Formal Logic
1
Moreover, The Formal logic is the study of inference with purely formal content, i.e. where
content made explicit.
Examples – Propositional logic and Predicate logic.
• Here the logical arguments are a set of rules for manipulating symbols. The rules are of
two types,
1. Syntax rules: say how to build meaningful expressions.
2. Inference rules: say how to obtain true formulas from other true formulas.
• Moreover, Logic also needs semantics, which says how to assign meaning to expressions.
Uncertainty in Reasoning
• The world is an uncertain place; often the Knowledge is imperfect which causes
uncertainty.
• So, Therefore reasoning must be able to operate under uncertainty.
• Also, AI systems must have the ability to reason under conditions of uncertainty.
Monotonic Reasoning
• A reasoning process that moves in one direction only.
• Moreover, The number of facts in the knowledge base is always increasing.
• The conclusions derived are valid deductions and they remain so.
A monotonic logic cannot handle
1. Reasoning by default: because consequences may derive only because of lack of evidence
to the contrary.
2. Abductive reasoning: because consequences only deduced as most likely explanations.
3. Belief revision: because new knowledge may contradict old beliefs.

Introduction to Nonmonotonic Reasoning

Non-monotonic Reasoning
The definite clause logic is monotonic in the sense that anything that could be concluded before
a clause is added can still be concluded after it is added; adding knowledge does not reduce the
set of propositions that can be derived.
A logic is non-monotonic if some conclusions can be invalidated by adding more knowledge.
The logic of definite clauses with negation as failure is non-monotonic. Non-monotonic
reasoning is useful for representing defaults. A default is a rule that can be used unless it
overridden by an exception.
For example, to say that b is normally true if c is true, a knowledge base designer can write a rule
of the form
b ←c ∧ ∼ aba.
where aba is an atom that means abnormal with respect to some aspect a. Given c, the agent can
infer bunless it is told aba. Adding aba to the knowledge base can prevent the conclusion of b.
Rules that imply abacan be used to prevent the default under the conditions of the body of the
rule.
Example 5.27: Suppose the purchasing agent is investigating purchasing holidays. A resort may
be adjacent to a beach or away from a beach. This is not symmetric; if the resort was adjacent to
a beach, the knowledge provider would specify this. Thus, it is reasonable to have the clause
away_from_beach ← ∼ on_beach.
This clause enables an agent to infer that a resort is away from the beach if the agent is not told it
is adjacent to a beach.
A cooperative system tries to not mislead. If we are told the resort is on the beach, we would
expect that resort users would have access to the beach. If they have access to a beach, we would
2
expect them to be able to swim at the beach. Thus, we would expect the following defaults:
beach_access ←on_beach ∧ ∼ abbeach_access.
swim_at_beach ←beach_access ∧ ∼ abswim_at_beach.
A cooperative system would tell us if a resort on the beach has no beach access or if there is no
swimming. We could also specify that, if there is an enclosed bay and a big city, then there is no
swimming, by default:
abswim_at_beach ←enclosed_bay ∧big_city ∧ ∼ abno_swimming_near_city.
We could say that British Columbia is abnormal with respect to swimming near cities:
abno_swimming_near_city ←in_BC ∧ ∼ abBC_beaches.
Given only the preceding rules, an agent infers away_from_beach. If it is then told on_beach, it
can no longer infer away_from_beach, but it can now infer beach_access and swim_at_beach. If
it is also told enclosed_bay and big_city, it can no longer infer swim_at_beach. However, if it is
then told in_BC, it can then infer swim_at_beach.
By having defaults of what is normal, a user can interact with the system by telling it what is
abnormal, which allows for economy in communication. The user does not have to state the
obvious.
One way to think about non-monotonic reasoning is in terms of arguments. The rules can be
used as components of arguments, in which the negated abnormality gives a way to undermine
arguments. Note that, in the language presented, only positive arguments exist that can be
undermined. In more general theories, there can be positive and negative arguments that attack
each other.

Implementation Issues

Weak Slot and Filler Structures

Evolution Frames
• As seen in the previous example, there are certain problems which are difficult to solve
with Semantic Nets.
• Although there is no clear distinction between a semantic net and frame system, more
structured the system is, more likely it is to be termed as a frame system.
• A frame is a collection of attributes (called slots) and associated values that describe
some entities in the world. Sometimes a frame describes an entity in some absolute sense;
• Sometimes it represents the entity from a particular point of view only.
• A single frame taken alone is rarely useful; we build frame systems out of collections of
frames that connected to each other by virtue of the fact that the value of an attribute of
one frame may be another frame.
Frames as Sets and Instances
• The set theory is a good basis for understanding frame systems.
• Each frame represents either a class (a set) or an instance (an element of class)
• Both isa and instance relations have inverse attributes, which we call subclasses & all
instances.
• As a class represents a set, there are 2 kinds of attributes that can be associated with it.
1. Its own attributes &
2. Attributes that are to be inherited by each element of the set.
3
Frames as Sets and Instances
• Sometimes, the difference between a set and an individual instance may not be clear.
• Example: Team India is an instance of the class of Cricket Teams and can also think of as
the set of players.
• Now the problem is if we present Team India as a subclass of Cricket teams, then Indian
players automatically become part of all the teams, which is not true.
• So, we can make Team India a subclass of class called Cricket Players.
• To do this we need to differentiate between regular classes and meta-classes.
• Regular Classes are those whose elements are individual entities whereas Meta-classes
are those special classes whose elements are themselves, classes.
• The most basic meta-class is the class CLASS.
• It represents the set of all classes.
• All classes are instances of it, either directly or through one of its subclasses.
• The class CLASS introduces the attribute cardinality, which is to inherited by all instances
of CLASS. Cardinality stands for the number.
Other ways of Relating Classes to Each Other
• We have discussed that a class1 can be a subset of class2.
• If Class2 is a meta-class then Class1 can be an instance of Class2.
• Another way is the mutually-disjoint-with relationship, which relates a class to one or
more other classes that guaranteed to have no elements in common with it.
• Another one is, is-covered-by which relates a class to a set of subclasses, the union of
which is equal to it.
• If a class is-covered-by a set S of mutually disjoint classes, then S called a partition of the
class.
Slots as Full-Fledged Objects (Frames)
Till now we have used attributes as slots, but now we will represent attributes explicitly and
describe their properties.
Some of the properties we would like to be able to represent and use in reasoning include,
• The class to which the attribute can attach.
• Constraints on either the type or the value of the attribute.
• A default value for the attribute. Rules for inheriting values for the attribute.
• To be able to represent these attributes of attributes, we need to describe attributes (slots)
as frames.

4
 • These frames will organize into an isa hierarchy, just as any other frames, and that
hierarchy can then used to support inheritance of values for attributes of slots.
• Now let us formalize what is a slot. A slot here is a relation.
• It maps from elements of its domain (the classes for which it makes sense) to elements of
its range (its possible values).
• A relation is a set of ordered pairs.
• Thus it makes sense to say that relation R1 is a subset of another relation R2.
• In that case, R1 is a specialization of R2. Since a slot is a set, the set of all slots, which
we will call SLOT, is a meta-class.
• Its instances are slots, which may have sub-slots.

Frame Example
In this example, the frames Person, Adult-Male, ML-Baseball-Player (corresponding to major
league baseball players), Pitcher, and ML-Baseball-Team (for major league baseball team) are all
classes.

• The frames Pee-Wee-Reese and Brooklyn-Dodgers are instances.

• The isa relation that we have been using without a precise definition is, in fact, the subset
relation. The set of adult males is a subset of the set of people.
• The set of major league baseball players subset of the set of adult males, and so forth.
• Our instance relation corresponds to the relation element-of Pee Wee Reese is an element
of the set of fielders.
• Thus he is also an element of all of the supersets of fielders, including major league
baseball players and people. The transitivity of isa follows directly from the transitivity
of the subset relation.

5
 • Both the isa and instance relations have inverse attributes, which we call subclasses and
all instances.
• Because a class represents a set, there are two kinds of attributes that can associate with
it.
• Some attributes are about the set itself, and some attributes are to inherited by each
element of the set.
• We indicate the difference between these two by prefixing the latter with an asterisk (*).
• For example, consider the class ML-Baseball-Player, we have shown only two properties
of it as a set: It a subset of the set of adult males. And it has cardinality 624.
• We have listed five properties that all major league baseball players have (height, bats,
batting average, team, and uniform-color), and we have specified default values for the
first three of them.
• By providing both kinds of slots, we allow both classes to define a set of objects and to
describe a prototypical object of the set.
• Frames are useful for representing objects that are typical of stereotypical situations.
• The situation like the structure of complex physical objects, visual scenes, etc.
• A commonsense knowledge can represent using default values if no other value exists.
Commonsense is generally used in the absence of specific knowledge.

Semantic Nets
• Inheritance property can represent using isa and instance
• Monotonic Inheritance can perform substantially more efficiently with such structures
than with pure logic, and non-monotonic inheritance is also easily supported.
• The reason that makes Inheritance easy is that the knowledge in slot and filler systems is
structured as a set of entities and their attributes.
These structures turn out to be useful as,
• It indexes assertions by the entities they describe. As a result, retrieving the value for an
attribute of an entity is fast.
• Moreover, It makes easy to describe properties of relations. To do this in a purely logical
system requires higher-order mechanisms.
• It is a form of object-oriented programming and has the advantages that such systems
normally include modularity and ease of viewing by people.
Here we would describe two views of this kind of structure – Semantic Nets & Frames.
Semantic Nets
• There are different approaches to knowledge representation include semantic net, frames,
and script.
• The semantic net describes both objects and events.
• In a semantic net, information represented as a set of nodes connected to each other by a
set of labeled arcs, which represents relationships among the nodes.
• It is a directed graph consisting of vertices which represent concepts and edges which
represent semantic relations between the concepts.
• It is also known as associative net due to the association of one node with other.
• The main idea is that the meaning of the concept comes from the ways in which it
connected to other concepts.
• We can use inheritance to derive additional relations.

6
Figure: A Semantic Network
Intersection Search Semantic Nets
• We try to find relationships among objects by spreading activation out from each of two
nodes. And seeing where the activation meets.
• Using this we can answer the questions like, what is the relation between India and Blue.
• It takes advantage of the entity-based organization of knowledge that slot and filler
representation provides.
Representing Non-binary Predicates Semantic Nets
• Simple binary predicates like isa(Person, Mammal) can represent easily by semantic nets
but other non-binary predicates can also represent by using general-purpose predicates
such as isa and instance.
• Three or even more place predicates can also convert to a binary form by creating one
new object representing the entire predicate statement and then introducing binary
predicates to describe a relationship to this new object.

Conceptual Dependency
Introduction to Strong Slot and Filler Structures
• The main problem with semantic networks and frames is that they lack formality; there is
no specific guideline on how to use the representations.
• In frame when things change, we need to modify all frames that are relevant – this can be
time-consuming.
• Strong slot and filler structures typically represent links between objects according to
more rigid rules, specific notions of what types of object and relations between them are
provided and represent knowledge about common situations.
• Moreover, We have types of strong slot and filler structures:
1. Conceptual Dependency (CD)
2. Scripts
3. Cyc
Conceptual Dependency (CD)
Conceptual Dependency originally developed to represent knowledge acquired from natural
language input.
The goals of this theory are:
• To help in the drawing of the inference from sentences.
• To be independent of the words used in the original input.
• That is to say: For any 2 (or more) sentences that are identical in meaning there should be
only one representation of that meaning.
Moreover, It has used by many programs that portend to understand English (MARGIE, SAM,
PAM).

7
Conceptual Dependency (CD) provides:
• A structure into which nodes representing information can be placed.
• Also, A specific set of primitives.
• A given level of granularity.
Sentences are represented as a series of diagrams depicting actions using both abstract and real
physical situations.
• The agent and the objects represented.
• Moreover, The actions are built up from a set of primitive acts which can modify by
tense.
CD is based on events and actions. Every event (if applicable) has:
• an ACTOR o an ACTION performed by the Actor
• Also, an OBJECT that the action performs on
• A DIRECTION in which that action is oriented
These are represented as slots and fillers. In English sentences, many of these attributes left out.
A Simple Conceptual Dependency Representation
For the sentences, “I have a book to the man” CD representation is as follows:

Where the symbols have the following meaning.

• Arrows indicate directions of dependency.
• Moreover, The double arrow indicates the two-way link between actor and action.
• O — for the object case relation
• R – for the recipient case relation
• P – for past tense
• D – destination
Primitive Acts of Conceptual Dependency Theory
ATRANS
• Transfer of an abstract relationship (i.e. give)
PTRANS
• Transfer of the physical location of an object (e.g., go)
PROPEL
• Also, Application of physical force to an object (e.g. push)
MOVE
• Moreover, Movement of a body part by its owner (e.g. kick)
GRASP
• Grasping of an object by an action (e.g. throw)
INGEST
• Ingesting of an object by an animal (e.g. eat)
EXPEL
• Expulsion of something from the body of an animal (e.g. cry)
MTRANS
• Transfer of mental information (e.g. tell)
MBUILD
• Building new information out of old (e.g decide)
SPEAK

8
 • Producing of sounds (e.g. say)
ATTEND
• Focusing of a sense organ toward a stimulus (e.g. listen)
There are four conceptual categories. These are,
ACT
• Actions {one of the CD primitives}
PP
• Also, Objects {picture producers}
AA
• Modifiers of actions {action aiders}
PA
• Modifiers of PP’s {picture aiders}
Advantages of Conceptual Dependency
• Using these primitives involves fewer inference rules.
• So, Many inference rules already represented in CD structure.
• Moreover, The holes in the initial structure help to focus on the points still to established.
Disadvantages of Conceptual Dependency
• Knowledge must decompose into fairly low-level primitives.
• Impossible or difficult to find the correct set of primitives.
• Also, A lot of inference may still require.
• Representations can be complex even for relatively simple actions.
• Consider: Dave bet Frank five pounds that Wales would win the Rugby World Cup.
• Moreover, Complex representations require a lot of storage.

Scripts
Scripts Strong Slot
• A script is a structure that prescribes a set of circumstances which could be expected to
follow on from one another.
• It is similar to a thought sequence or a chain of situations which could be anticipated.
• It could be considered to consist of a number of slots or frames but with more specialized
roles.
Scripts are beneficial because:
• Events tend to occur in known runs or patterns.
• Causal relationships between events exist.
• Entry conditions exist which allow an event to take place
• Prerequisites exist for events taking place. E.g. when a student progresses through a
degree scheme or when a purchaser buys a house.
Script Components
Each script contains the following main components.
• Entry Conditions: Must be satisfied before events in the script can occur.
• Results: Conditions that will be true after events in script occur.
• Props: Slots representing objects involved in the events.
• Roles: Persons involved in the events.
• Track: the Specific variation on the more general pattern in the script. Different tracks
may share many components of the same script but not all.

9
 • Scenes: The sequence of events that occur. Events represented in conceptual dependency
form.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Script
Advantages
• Capable of predicting implicit events
• Single coherent interpretation may be build up from a collection of observations.
Disadvantage
• More specific (inflexible) and less general than frames.
• Not suitable to represent all kinds of knowledge.
To deal with inflexibility, smaller modules called memory organization packets (MOP)
can combine in a way that appropriates for the situation.
Script Example

• It must activate based on its significance.

• If the topic important, then the script should open.
• If a topic just mentioned, then a pointer to that script could hold.
• For example, given “John enjoyed the play in theater”, a script “Play in Theater”
suggested above invoke.
• All implicit questions can answer correctly.
Here the significance of this script is high.
• Did John go to the theater?
• Also, Did he buy the ticket?
• Did he have money?
If we have a sentence like “John went to the theater to pick his daughter”, then invoking this
script will lead to many wrong answers.
• Here significance of the script theater is less.

10
Getting significance from the story is not straightforward. However, some heuristics can apply to
get the value.

CYC
What is CYC?
• An ambitious attempt to form a very large knowledge base aimed at capturing
commonsense reasoning.
• Initial goals to capture knowledge from a hundred randomly selected articles in the
Encyclopedia Britannica.
• Also, Both Implicit and Explicit knowledge encoded.
• Moreover, Emphasis on study of underlying information (assumed by the authors but not
needed to tell to the readers.
Example: Suppose we read that Wellington learned of Napoleon’s death • Then we (humans)
can conclude Napoleon never new that Wellington had died.
How do we do this?
So, We require special implicit knowledge or commonsense such as:
• We only die once.
• You stay dead.
• Moreover, You cannot learn anything when dead.
• Time cannot go backward.
Why build large knowledge bases:
1. Brittleness
• Specialised knowledge bases are brittle. Hard to encode new situations and non-
graceful degradation in performance. Commonsense based knowledge bases
should have a firmer foundation.
2. Form and Content
• Moreover, Knowledge representation may not be suitable for AI. Commonsense
strategies could point out where difficulties in content may affect the form.
3. Shared Knowledge
• Also, Should allow greater communication among systems with common bases
and assumptions.
How is CYC coded?
• By hand.
• Special CYCL language:
• LISP-like.
• Frame-based
• Multiple inheritances
• Slots are fully fledged objects.
• Generalized inheritance — any link not just isa and instance.

11