Expert systems and information retrieval: an experiment in the domain of biographical data management

Abstract

The RESEDA project is concerned with the construction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) management systems working on factual databases consisting of biographical data; this data is described using a particular Knowledge Representation language (“meta-language”) based on the Artificial Intelligence understanding of a “Case Grammar” approach. The “computing kemel” of the system consists of an inference interpreter. Where it is not possible to find a direct response to the (formal) question posed, RESEDA tries to answer indirectly by using a first stage of inference procedures (“transformations”). Moreover, the system is able to establish automatically new causal links between the statements represented in the base, on the ground of “hypotheses”, of a somewhat general nature, about the class of possible relationships. In this case, the result of the inference operations can thus modify, at least in principle, the original content of the database.