ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE NOTES

REASONING METHODS

REASONING
INTRODUCTION
As studies of artificial intelligence continue, it should become apparent that progress in
solving the problems of AI closely paralleled the development of tools and techniques for
manipulating knowledge. First we must have a knowledge base then we need a computer program
that will enable us to access the knowledge for the purpose of making inferences and decision and
problem solving. The program is an algorithm that controls some reasoning process and it is
usually referred to as the inference engine or the control program. In rule based systems it is
also referred to as the rule interpreter.
Logic may be considered the study of the rules of inference. Inference is the means by
which we reason from given knowledge. Early AI researchers hope that they could provide the
computer with fundamental postulates and rules of inference and then stand aside while the
computer marched bravely forward, deducing or inferring truth about earth. While this hope soon
proved to be false, it did become clear that any moderately general AI system must include inference
rules.
Without such rules of logic, many problems would degenerate into exhaustive searches which would
defeat even the most capable computer system.

HOW CAN WE REASON?

To a certain extend this will depend on the chosen knowledge representation. Although a good
knowledge representation scheme has to allow easy, natural, and plausible reasoning. Listed below are
very broad methods of how we may reason.
1) Deductive Reasoning:
Deductive Reasoning is a process in which general premises are used to obtain a specific
inference. Reasoning moves from a general principle to a specific conclusion.
Example:
Premise : I wash my car when the weather is good on weekends.
Premise: Today is Sunday and the weather is hot
Conclusion:Therefore, I will wash my car today.

To use deductive reasoning the problem must generally be formatted in this way.Once the
format has been achieved , the conclusion must be valid if the premises are true.The whole idea is to
develope new knowladge from previously given knowladge.
Starting with such a set of postulates, axioms, and definitions Euclid was able to prove 465
geometric propositions as the logical consequence of the input assumptions.
One of the basic rules of inference of deductive logic is the modus ponens rule. A formal
English statement of this rule is :
If X is true and if X being true implies Y is true then Y is
True.
(X∧(X→Y)→Y
Example:
All cats are
felines.
Bosty is a cat.
I can deduce that Bosty is a feline.
Abduction is a form of deductive logic which provides only a ‘plausible inference’ . For
instance:
If I read Smoking couses lung cancer and Frank died of lung cancer , I may infer that
Frank was a smoker.Again this may or may not be true.Using statistics and probability theory ,
abduction may yield the most probable inference among many possible inferences.
Abductionis heuristic in the sense that it provides a plausible conclusion consistent with
available information, but one which may in fact be wrong.
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 To illustrate how abduction works, consider following logical system consisting of a
generalrule and a specific proposition:
1) All succesful , entrepreneurial industrialists are rich persons.
2) John is a rich person.
If this was only information available, a plausable inference would be that John was a
succesful , entrepreneurial industrialist.This conclusion could also be false since there are other roads
to riches such as inheritance , the lottery...If we had a table of the income distribution of wealthy
persons along with their personal histories, we could refine our abduction inference with the
probability of the inference being true .

2) Inductive Reasoning A principle of reasoning to a conclusion about all members of a

class from examination of only a few members of the class; broadly, reasoning from the particular to
the general.
For example :
In 1998, The best model of Turkey is from İzmir
In 1999, The best model of Turkey is from İzmir
In 2000, The best model of Turkey is from
İzmir
I would logically infer that all the girls from İzmir is beautiful. This may or may not be true.
But it provides a useful generalization.

Another example :
1= 12
1+3 = 22
1+3+5 = 32
1+3+5+7 =42
and, by induction ∑ ( n successive odd integers ) = n2

Another example :
Falcon can fly.
Canary can fly.
Gull can fly.
Conclusion: Birds can fly.

The outcome of the inductive reasoning process will frequently contain some measure of
uncertainty because including all possible facts in the premises is usually impossible.
Deductive or inductive approaches are used in logic, rule-based systems, and frames.

3) Analogical Reasoning
Analogical reasoning assumes that when a question is asked, the answer can be derived by
analogy.
Example :
Premise : All football teams gets 3 point when they win.
Question : How many points did GS take this weekend?
Conclusion : Because GS is a football team and won Antep they took 3
points.
Analogical reasoning is a type of verbalization of an internalized learning process. An
individual uses processes that require an ability to recognize previously encountered experiences.
The use of this approach has not been exploited yet in AI field. However, case-based
reasoning is an attempt.

4) Formal Reasoning
Formal reasoning involves syntactic manipulation of data structures to deduce new facts.
A typical example is the mathematical logic used in proving theorems in geometry.

5) Procedural Numeric Reasoning

Procedural numeric reasoning uses mathematical models or simulation to solve problems.
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Model-based reasoning is an example of this approach.

6) Generalization and Abstraction

Generalization and abstraction can be successfully used with both logical and semantic
representation of knowledge.

7) Metalevel Reasoning
Metalevel reasoning involves “knowledge about what you know”. Which approach to use,
how successful the inference will be, depends to a great extent on which knowledge
representation method is used. For example; reasoning by analogy can be more successful with
semantic networks than with frames.

Which Reasoning Process to Use

The true power of an expert system is in effective management of the reasoning process by
utilizing the appropriate components of the knowledge base and the inference engine. Several
paradigms for controlling the inferencing process are available and each has its advantages and
disadvantages. Forward chaining and backward chaining are most popular paradigms. Conflict
resolution also plays an important part in many cases. Some systems offer using rule-scheduling
process and some provide syntactic tools to control the rule execution.

I) USES:
*Tactical planning
*Political analysis
*Situation assessment
*Legal planning
*Diagnosis
*Fraud detection
*Design/Configuration
*Message classification