8. Perspectives and conclusions

This dossier provides an update on knowledge-based systems, the implementation of which requires reflection on the knowledge involved, on the one hand, and on the reasoning to be applied to it, on the other. This twofold task is carried out firstly in the knowledge acquisition phase, which can lead to a true model of expertise, at a greater or lesser level of abstraction, independently of any idea of system implementation.

Methods and tools are being developed to facilitate this crucial phase. Automatic symbolic learning, i.e. the learning of knowledge by the machine itself, is also currently an area of active research.

At the same time, SBC implementation environments are being developed. In first-generation systems, with a majority of heuristic knowledge, reasoning is governed by the operation of an inference engine: depending on the mode...