Friday, August 2, 2019

Acquiring knowledge for knowledge-based systems

Ted Pittman, an old friend from my college days, got back in touch with me this summer. It turns out Ted was working on expert systems at the same time I was.* In his autobiography he reports how staff were reluctant to share their expertise for inclusion in knowledge bases. Humans, after all, spend considerable time and money on books, in schools, and on-the-job acquiring knowledge, they don’t want to simply “give it away” as they see it. Some knowledge is especially closely guarded.**
*He built and sold his “E-1” expert system
**Nuclear weapons designs for example. Or some software programs.

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