Intelligent technologies like expert systems are designed to deliver expert knowledge to non-expert users. Finding good subject matter experts and using them the appropriately are critical to success. The importance of expert knowledge The knowledge engineering process will depend on the availability of expert knowledge. At least one subject matter expert with specialized domain knowledge... Continue Reading →
How should we think about the risks of legal expert systems?
When I'm speaking at conferences about the expanded use of legal tech, a lawyer or judge in the audience will invariably show an eagerness to highlight the risks of these new tools. Legal expert systems are no exception. Alarmists will often dwell on the very existence of a risk, with little concern for the scale,... Continue Reading →
Using logic & tech to cut complexity and improve access to justice
Logic can be a powerful tool for helping non-expert users cope with the complexity of the law. It can become a particularly powerful legal problem diagnosis tool. It's helpful to work through an example using a typical piece of legislation. Let's assume our user has a specific type of legal issue under the fictional Widgets Act.... Continue Reading →
Will legal expert systems put lawyers out of work?
It's easy to find articles and blog posts these predicting that intelligent technologies will take work away from lawyers at some point in the future. And maybe that will happen eventually, at least for some lawyers. But there are two reasons to be confident that intelligent tech like expert systems won't put lawyers out of work... Continue Reading →
Knowledge engineering and subject matter experts: 4 key points
Here are 4 key points to remember if you are working with subject matter experts (SMEs) to create a knowledge base for an expert system: 1. Expert knowledge is a critical ingredient The value of the expert system comes from its expert knowledge. If your knowledge engineering efforts rely on SMEs who are weak in their domain,... Continue Reading →
The 3-Part Anatomy of an Expert System
Expert systems can be described in three structural components. My description is intentionally simplified. It's also meant to be conceptual. Actual systems may have a more complex makeup, or a different architecture altogether. The Knowledge Base The knowledge base makes the expert system intelligent. It's where the domain-specific expert knowledge is stored. The knowledge is... Continue Reading →
Chaining expert system logic
Each rule in an expert system knowledge base follows a conditional logic approach to reasoning. If a condition is satisfied, then the system makes a deduction. The rules in an expert system's knowledge base can be connected or chained together. This chaining allows the system to make several deductions in sequence. To make this forward-chaining approach... Continue Reading →
Can expert systems outperform humans?
Is an expert system better than a human expert? Sometimes. An expert system can out-reason humans - especially non-expert humans - in a particular domain. If you have a good knowledge base designed to reason well, it won't fail. Depth If the knowledge base contains very deep knowledge resembling advanced expertise, the system will reason like... Continue Reading →
Diagnosing legal problems with rule-based expert systems
Lawyers are trained to recognize and diagnose legal problems. They are experts in their domain. We can take their expertise and put it into machines. To do it with expert systems, we need to reduce the legal diagnosis expertise into rules. The rules need to move from the general to the specific. Take this example of... Continue Reading →
Using expert systems to solve complex problems
Can expert systems solve complex problems? Yes. But they're not born to do it. Humans need to create the knowledge base that will enable them to reason about complex problems. The process is called knowledge engineering. Human experts hold knowledge in their domain of expertise. Knowledge engineers are the ones who acquire this knowledge and... Continue Reading →