In
artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
, knowledge-based agents draw on a pool of logical sentences to infer conclusions about the
world
The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that Existence, exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk ...
. At the knowledge level, we only need to specify what the agent knows and what its goals are; a logical abstraction separate from details of implementation.
This notion of knowledge level was first introduced by
Allen Newell
Allen Newell (March 19, 1927 – July 19, 1992) was an American researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND Corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and D ...
in the 1980s, to have a way to rationalize an agent's behavior. The agent takes actions based on knowledge it possesses, in an attempt to reach specific goals. It chooses actions according to the
principle of rationality.
Beneath the knowledge level resides the
symbol level. Whereas the knowledge level is ''world'' oriented, namely that it concerns the environment in which the agent operates, the symbol level is ''system'' oriented, in that it includes the mechanisms the agent has available to operate. The knowledge level ''rationalizes'' the agent's behavior, while the symbol level ''mechanizes'' the agent's behavior.
For example, in a computer program, the knowledge level consists of the information contained in its data structures that it uses to perform certain actions. The symbol level consists of the program's algorithms, the data structures themselves, and so on.
See also
*
Knowledge level modeling Knowledge level modeling is the process of theorizing over observations about a world and, to some extent, explaining the behavior of an agent as it interacts with its environment.
Crucial to the understanding of knowledge level modeling are Allen ...
*
Knowledge relativity
Factual relativism (also called epistemic relativism, epistemological relativism, alethic relativism, and cognitive relativism) is the philosophical belief that certain facts are not absolute but depend on the perspective from which they are being ...
References
*T. Menzies. Applications of Abduction: Knowledge-Level Modeling. November 1996.
*A. Newell. The Knowledge Level. Artificial Intelligence, 18(1):87-127, 1982.
Artificial intelligence