KNACK: Sample-Driven Knowledge Acquisition for Reporting Systems

Abstract

KNACK is a specialized knowledge-acquisition tool that generates expert systems for reporting tasks. The tool derives its power from exploiting the presupposed acquire-and-present problem-solving method used by the expert systems it generates. The method incrementally acquires relevant information and produces a report. It can also be combined with other problem-solving methods. An important goal in the development of KNACK is to create a tool that elicits knowledge from domain experts without requiring knowledge-engineering skills on their part. To reach that goal, KNACK’s approach to knowledge acquisition uses existing AI techniques to derive a general description of how to acquire and present information from a specific sample description.