Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) is a

computer language A computer language is a formal language used to communicate with a computer. Types of computer languages include: * Construction language – all forms of communication by which a human can specify an executable problem solution to a comput ...

designed to enable systems to share and re-use information from knowledge-based systems. KIF is similar to

frame language Frames are an artificial intelligence data structure used to divide knowledge into substructures by representing "stereotyped situations". They were proposed by Marvin Minsky in his 1974 article "A Framework for Representing Knowledge". Frames are t ...

s such as

KL-One KL-ONE (pronounced "kay ell won") is a knowledge representation system in the tradition of semantic networks and frames; that is, it is a frame language. The system is an attempt to overcome semantic indistinctness in semantic network represen ...

and

LOOM A loom is a device used to weave cloth and tapestry. The basic purpose of any loom is to hold the warp threads under tension to facilitate the interweaving of the weft threads. The precise shape of the loom and its mechanics may vary, but t ...

but unlike such language its primary role is not intended as a framework for the expression or use of knowledge but rather for the interchange of knowledge between systems. The designers of KIF likened it to

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Do ...

. PostScript was not designed primarily as a language to store and manipulate documents but rather as an interchange format for systems and devices to share documents. In the same way KIF is meant to facilitate sharing of knowledge across different systems that use different languages, formalisms, platforms, etc. KIF has a declarative semantics. It is meant to describe facts about the world rather than processes or procedures. Knowledge can be described as objects, functions, relations, and rules. It is a formal language, i.e., it can express arbitrary statements in first order logic and can support reasoners that can prove the consistency of a set of KIF statements. KIF also supports non-monotonic reasoning. KIF was created by

Michael Genesereth Michael Genesereth (born 1948) is an American logician and computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computatio ...

, Richard Fikes and others participating in the

DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the A ...

knowledge sharing Knowledge sharing is an activity through which knowledge (namely, information, skills, or expertise) is exchanged among people, friends, peers, families, communities (for example, Wikipedia), or within or between organizations. It bridges the in ...

Effort. Although the original KIF group intended to submit to a formal standards body, that did not occur. A later version called Common Logic has since been developed for submission to ISO and has been approved and published. A variant called SUO-KIF is the language in which the Suggested Upper Merged OntologySuggested Upper Merged Ontology
is written. A practical application of the Knowledge interchange format is an

agent communication language Agent Communication Language (ACL), proposed by the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents (FIPA), is a proposed standard language for agent communications. Knowledge Query and Manipulation Language (KQML) is another proposed standard. The m ...

in a multi-agent system.

References

External links

Knowledge Interchange Format
page at the

Stanford AI Lab Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

Common Logic
Knowledge representation languages Ontology (information science) Logic in computer science {{compu-sci-stub

See also

References

External links