Closing the knowledge gap between humans and machines at KMWorld 2022

When humans use their knowledge to create or program digital information, it is most often done with the expectation that other humans will consume it, interact with it, or further contribute to it in its digital form by, for example, adding or changing the content.

But there are two major challenges in this journey: organizing knowledge into usable digital information (the first mile) and enabling the consumption of that knowledge by humans in the most effective and natural way possible (the last mile).

At KMWorld 2022, David Nahamoo, CTO, Pryon, and recent IBM fellow and chief scientist for Conversational Systems, discussed “Closing the Gap of Knowledge Between Humans & Machines With AI & Natural Language Processing.”

IBM Methods to organize knowledge have evolved and advanced over time, for example, creating databases by infusing ontology and structure into the originally authored content. The consumption of knowledge has also seen tremendous advancement, from paper-only output to today’s ubiquitous visual GUIs aided by natural language-based keyword searches.

The next quantum leap in closing the human-machine gap in knowledge interaction will come with the more sophisticated mechanisms enabled by natural language processing (NLP) developments.

We can solve both the first and last mile challenges that will truly democratize access to knowledge in two ways: by marrying sophisticated ontologically derived NLP for organizing digital information for search, and by building sophisticated NLP question-answering and dialogue management methods to create conversational agents and “knowledge bots.”

“Digital intelligence is trying to answer any question, solve any problem, and automate any process,” Nahamoo said.  

Hidden knowledge is costing productivity, he explained. It takes 12.5 hours of manpower on average to find the right information within an organization. Pryon transforms static content into high-value interactive experiences, Nahamoo noted.

“What we deliver is essentially zero-code,” Nahamoo said. “Subject matter experts should be able to infuse knowledge right away into the system.”

Our human intelligence processing consists of sensory experiences: vision, speech, touch. He introduced the four Rs.

• Recognize
• Reason
• Recall
• React

Humans also comprehend, converse, and comply when processing knowledge, he explained.

“We modulate everything that we do with our emotions,” Nahamoo said. “Intelligence and emotions go hand in hand to make us what we are.”

According to Nahamoo, there are three ways to find knowledge:

• Ask an expert
• Ask a specialized knowledge-bot
• As an agent who consults a knowledge-bot

To retrieve information, we have AI for FAQs, keyword search, query language search, and question/answer strategies.

Digital information processing breaks down into three areas: content management, collaboration management, and task management.

Knowledge bots, conversation bots, and expert bots should be created in order to round up information, he explained.

“It’s really about being able to answer everything,” Nahamoo said. “If you don’t record this knowledge, it gets lost.”

KMWorld returned in-person to the J.W. Marriott in Washington D.C. on November 7-10, with pre-conference workshops held on November 7.

KMWorld 2022 is a part of a unique program of five co-located conferences, which also includes Enterprise Search & Discovery, Office 365 Symposium, Taxonomy Boot Camp, and Text Analytics Forum.