A Method for Acquiring Strategic Knowledge

Original Abstract: In this article we present an automated method for acquiring strategic knowledge from experts. Strategic knowledge is used by an agent to decide what action to perform next, where actions effect both the agent’s beliefs and the state of the external world. Strategic knowledge underlies expertise in many tasks, yet it is difficult to acquire from experts and is generally treated as an implementation problem. The knowledge acquisition method consists of the design of an operational representation for strategic knowledge, a technique for eliciting it from experts, and an interactive assistant that manages a learning dialog with the expert. The assistant elicits cases of expert-justified strategic decisions and generalizes strategic knowledge with syntactic induction guided by the expert. The knowledge acquisition method derives its power and limitations from the way in which strategic knowledge is represented and applied.