5.3 Clause
Symbolic AI
The family covers knowledge representation and reasoning: ontologies, taxonomies, logic, inference and graph structures. The system holds statements about a domain and derives conclusions from them, rather than fitting a function to examples.
What this settles
Symbolic methods make the knowledge itself the object of governance. The questions are which sources were asserted, who approved them, what happens when they conflict, and how a conclusion can be traced.
Who it binds
The organisation, as a method choice. Where the knowledge encodes a legal rule or a clinical fact, the underlying duty comes from that field and needs its own owner.
What to do in your practice
Keep a knowledge source register: each source, its authority, its date, its owner and the inference it supports. Record how contradictions are resolved. A symbolic system without that register cannot explain itself, however logical it is.
Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for
| A knowledge source register with authority and date per source. | Shows where the assertions come from. |
|---|---|
| A trace from one output back to the assertions and the inference. | Proves the reasoning can be examined. |
| A conflict log with the resolution rule applied. | Shows contradictions are handled, not hidden. |
When two knowledge sources disagree, which one wins, who decided, and can we show the trace?
Common gaps this page catches
- The ontology has no source register, so no one knows where a class or property came from.
- Conflicting facts are resolved silently in code.
- An output cannot be traced to the assertions that produced it.
What to prepare before publication
Build the source register for the highest-stakes domain first. It is usually smaller than expected and immediately useful to the people who maintain the ontology.
How to test it here
Take one live system rather than a template, find the field or sentence where Symbolic AI is used, and put this page beside it. Record the answer, the artefact and the date. A glossary entry on its own is an intention; a dated record beside a live artefact is evidence.
What this page does not claim
The page does not reproduce the draft, does not know the descriptor wording that the public preview withholds, and does not certify the system or the organisation. It states the unit at the claim level "methods family" and stops where the public record stops.
Common questions
- What does Symbolic AI mean in ISO/IEC DIS 42102?
- The family covers knowledge representation and reasoning: ontologies, taxonomies, logic, inference and graph structures. The system holds statements about a domain and derives conclusions from them, rather than fitting a function to examples.
- What evidence should we keep for 5.3?
- A knowledge source register with authority and date per source. A trace from one output back to the assertions and the inference.
- Is Symbolic AI a requirement?
- No. The draft is a descriptive framework. It sets no management system requirement and no conformity test. It becomes binding only when a contract, a regulator or a management system adopts it.
Related units
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