Inference Engine
In artificial intelligence, the inference engine is a system component that applies logical rules
to the knowledge base to deduce new information and to surface new facts and relationships.
Implementation of inference engines can proceed via induction or deduction. The process of
inferring relationships between entities utilizing machine learning, machine vision, and natural
language processing has exponentially increased the scale and value of knowledge graphs and
relational databases in recent years.
This process would iterate as each new fact in the knowledge base could trigger additional rules
in the inference engine. Inference engines work primarily in two modes, either special rule or
facts: forward chaining and backward chaining. Forward Chaining starts with the known facts
and asserts new facts. Backward Chaining begins with goals and works backward to determine
what facts must be asserted to achieve the goals.
Architecture of Inference Engine
Typically, IF-THEN rules represent the logic an inference engine uses. Such rules typically
follow the format IF logical expression THEN logical expression. Before expert systems and
inference engines, researchers in artificial intelligence focused on more powerful theorem
prover environments that provided much more comprehensive first-order logic
implementations. For instance, universal quantification (some statement is true for all X)
and existential quantification (some X exists such that some statement is true) were examples
of general statements.
For instance, statements over an infinite set, such as the set of all natural numbers, are common
in universal quantification. Although such statements are perfectly reasonable and even
required in mathematical proofs, including them in an automated theorem prover running on a
computer could send it into an infinite loop. The developers still received a very powerful
general mechanism to represent logic by focusing on IF-THEN statements—what logicians
call modus ponens—but one that could be utilized effectively with computational resources. In
addition, some psychological research indicates that humans tend to prefer IF-THEN
representations when storing complex knowledge.
A three-step cycle is followed by an inference engine: match rules, choose rules, and put
rules into action. When the rules are followed, new facts or objectives will frequently be added
to the knowledge base, which will repeat the cycle. This cycle continues until there are no more
rules that can be used.
In the initial step, match manages, the deduction motor finds the guidelines set off by the
ongoing items in the information base. The engine in forward Chainingchaining looks for rules
whose antecedent (left side) matches a knowledge base fact. The engine searches for
antecedents that can satisfy one of the current goals in backward Chaining.
The inference engine prioritizes the various matched rules in the second step, select rules, to
determine their execution order. The engine iterates back to step one after executing each
matched rule in the order determined in step two in the final step, execute rules. The cycle goes
on until there are no more rules that match.