A Sample Legal Chatbot

Clive Spenser sends this along,  a demonstration chatbot set up for legal rules.  Worth a look to see what can be done using logical rules.  Worth a look to construct rule based chatbots. .  

Clive writes: For demonstration purposes, we have set up a VisiRule legal chatbot on:

   ---->   https://www.smithlawson.com/

By Clive Spenser    LPA VisiRule

www.visirule.co.uk

www.lpa.co.uk

Using VisiRule to Create Chatbots

Had been looking for an easy way to create chatbots that include FAQ's. Recalled a company called  VisiRule that supported rule-based expert systems.  Decision tree style chatbots.    We looked at them some time ago.    Below are some examples of their work, with a number of chatbot examples.  VisiRule has been mentioned many times in this blog, see their tag below.

ChatBot Demos

This page contains various ChatBot demos which have been automatically generated from a VisiRule chart. This allows authors to quickly draw the intended conversation structure visually and easily. In addition, common questions can be answered by attaching a FAQ KB in the form of question/response. VisiRule contains a NLU component to help match user input text to these known questions. The combination of a structured decision tree flowchart conversation with general purpose information retrieval makes for a more rounded and holistic user experience.  ... "

Articles about Decision Trees

Good list from DSC of articles about decision trees, provided by Vincent Granville.    We found much value in the enterprise of these methods because their output was explainable to decision makers.   In addition we were able to use these results directly plugged into rule based expert systems to implement AI.  I still believe there is value in such rule bases to implement knowledge in simple logic directly.  Such systems still exist, for example, Visirule, recently updated, which we examined as early as 2009.

VisiRule for Building Intelligent Applications

Brought to my attention, a considerable update to VisiRule,  Which I have followed for years.  Back to making rule based expert systems easier?   Links to business process modeling?   Part of cognitive is logic.

Build Intelligent Applications without Programmers
Do you have business processes, captured using flowcharts and decision trees, that you want to automate?
Do you want to offer expert professional advice and guidance in a consistent and timely manner?
Do you want to enable your employees, customers and consumers to behave in an informed and compliant way?
Do you want to replicate your own specialist knowledge using a low-cost, self-help version available 24x7?
Do you want to reduce the burden on your own valuable product engineers and precious service experts?

If you answered Yes to any of the above, then you can use VisiRule to build intelligent decision support solutions.

VisiRule is a graphical software tool that lets business professionals capture, explore and model their expert know-how quickly and easily. Using VisiRule, the author simply drops boxes onto the canvas and links them together. VisiRule is an intelligent tool and knows what to do with your questions and logic, how to create question and answer sessions and how to generate executable rules from diagrams. .... " 

Rule Based Expert Systems

It is still possible to effectively build rule based expert systems.   I see that LPA has just established a new information and Download page.  Includes some good examples in a number of business contexts. Note how this relates to concept mapping.  Nicely done.  They write:

Rules without Programmers Self-service Expert Systems

Build your own expert applications without programming from simple decision trees to complex interconnected flowcharts.

VisiRule lets you capture your knowledge graphically, test and validate the logic and publish it so that others can benefit from it.

You can even present the VisiRule chart at run-time, as a map to help guide users through your decision logic. ...  "

(Update)   The comments contain a discussion about what knowledge can be implemented using such systems.   We discovered soon that maintenance difficulty was a key issue for updated knowledge in these systems.

VisiRule: Sharable Know-How

I am repeating part of a post from last year below, based on my reexamination of expert systems style applications:


" ... expert systems to understand and improve complex business processes.  I mentioned a package called Visirule in this blog a number of times.   Also outlined some of our enterprise experience with expert systems in the 80s. These systems were used for years to make our processes more efficient.   Visirule and other offerings of their company LPA deserves a look.  See also a detailed powerpoint presentation on how it works.  An article on the visualization of process logic.   And another related example article.

I think it is time for the use of Expert systems, combined with quantitative analytics and the availability of increasing amount of available data,  to lead to better business solutions ...

" ... VisiRule can help you build rules-based systems to model and automate decision-making processes. The business logic is identified and represented as a sequence of familiar graphical icons and links. The underlying logic-based inference engines help ensure a high degree of compliance and accuracy. This makes VisiRule ideal for building regulatory compliance systems, financial decision-making systems, and validation systems.

Shareable Know-How
The expertise and 'know-how' captured in a VisiRule chart is immediately shareable with colleagues and collaborators. VisiRule charts can be exported in industry standard formats, there is no need for internal or external reviewers to buy or install any additional software. All the relevant logic and business rules underpinning business decisions is immediately visible within a chart in a simple and coherent manner. This helps people work collaboratively and improves group productivity without increasing costs. ...  "

Visirule for Expert Systems

I have had reason recently to re-examine the use of expert systems to understand and improve complex business processes.  I have mentioned a package called Visirule in this blog a number of times.   Those mentions also outline some of our enterprise experience with expert systems in the mid to late 80s. Some of these systems were used for years to make our processes more efficient.   Visirule and other offerings of their company LPA deserves a look.  See also a detailed powerpoint presentation on how it works.  And a article on the visualization of process logic.   And another related article.

I think it is time for use of Expert systems, combined with quantitative analytics and the availability of increasing amount of available data,  to lead to better business solutions.  Join me in this quest.

Visirule: Logic Programming

In the heady AI/Knowledge Systems days of the 90s we wrote dozens of rule based systems that contained thousands of rules. These were designed to capture and reproduce the knowledge of corporate experts.  Maybe even run the company, lights off.   From time to time I still get questions from people who ask how we did that, and what vendors exist that can help deliver knowledge systems.

I have been an advocate of building 'Business Process Modeling' (BPM) descriptions of corporate process, which has some similarity to these same logic based systems.  In particular the results can be delivered in easily understood visualizations that can be used for training and delivering the outline of key expertise.  I have kept up with one system that is useful for these kinds of systems:  Visirule, from Logic Programming Associates.   Check it out and let me know what you think.

Also, here is a spreadsheet containing a number of sample applications of Visirule.
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VisiRule Expert Systems Package

I wrote about LPA recently and my own experience with using expert systems for enterprise improvement.

Another way to think about this is a form of business process management (BPM) that can provide more detailed and higher leverage solutions than most BPM packages can. Most importantly, these methods display the logic transparently and graphically, to help check and maintain it.

Clive Spenser writes that that LPA has announced an update to their VisiRule package

" ... its graphical charting tool which lets business professionals draw, test and generate business-rules applications either on the Desktop or the Internet.

VisiRule allows developers to design and deliver commercial rule-based systems, expert systems, and knowledge-based systems on Pcs and Internet. Business experts just draw the decision logic using a point-and-click paradigm and input the conditional logic to use at the relevant branching points.

This means that business experts no longer need to involve a sophisticated programmer to build decision support systems - they just need to understand their decision-making process.

VisiRule allows experts to rapidly produce accurate diagrams which they can then share and discuss with colleagues who are also involved with the business process at hand ... "

Logic Programming

I was just connected to a UK company called Logic Programming Associates Ltd. Which has a number of products including WIN-Prolog and VisiRule. The latter has a visual interface which allows you to construct interfaces for decision tree problems.

Reminds me of work we did in the late 80s, developing a system we called Decision 1-2-3, constructed with Teknowledge's M1 system. (M1 no longer exists) It was designed so that any clever employee could build their own expert systems based on their own or an experts knowledge. A user could construct a decision tree, or use a list of cases to generate a tree. Dozens of applications were built with the system, though it never became as widely used as we hoped. Ultimately the AI hype receded and our AI team disbanded.

These kinds of expertise problems still exist and this package is worth looking at to solve decision tree style problems. I know because as an internal consultant they frequently came up. I am investigating some possible applications now. I would appreciate any comments on applying LPA.