Knowledge Interchange Format: the KIF of Death

one knowledge representation scheme and another are premature.1 Those supporting knowledge representation standards are attempting to address this difficulty by creating a single language in which all knowledge representation schemes can be expressed (Genesereth 1990), but this task seems impossible given the current state of the field. Perhaps it is possible to construct a single language that can There has been a flurry of interest recently in the possibility of standardizing existing work on knowledge representation; this interest is supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and other funding agencies. One focus of this effort has been the development of an interlingua, or knowledge interchange format (KIF), by which knowledge could be moved from one declarative system to another. This article touches on a variety of issues. In Philosophical Arguments, I discuss general concerns about both the practicality of developing KIF and the effect that a partially successful development might have on the knowledge representation community in general. An Interlingua Proposal attempts to address the technical concerns raised, presenting a straw-man KIF proposal that might provide a way around these difficulties. In An Experiment, I discuss a specific translation experiment that, I hope, will settle some of the questions raised in the first two sections. Finally, Standards Effort or Research? discusses the question of whether the development of KIF should be viewed as a standardization or a research effort and the consequences of the natural conclusion.