Back to the future: revival of evidence theory and modal logic for robust and interpretable AI
2026 (English) In: 39th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence / [ed] Bouzar-Benlabiod, L Leung, C, JMLR-Journal Machine Learning Research , 2026, Vol. 318, p. 759-770Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
Years ago, when AI research was still predominantly a theoretical endeavor due to the scarcity of data, we developed a multi-valued modal logic interpretation of evidence measures. This work attracted some interest within the research community at the time but was gradually forgotten, even by us. Only recently have we revisited this modal logic interpretation of evidence theory, with the aim of developing neuro-symbolic modelling workflows capable of handling imperfect real-world data. The purpose of this position paper is to highlight the largely unexploited potential of these formalisms and to encourage the research community to further develop them toward more reliable, genuinely reasoning, and interpretable AI models. We begin by providing a concise overview of the key concepts underlying multi-valued mappings, evidence theory, and modal logic, along with our proposed multi-valued modal logic interpretation of evidence measures. We then present recent results demonstrating how these interpretations can be used to learn class expressions in weakly supervised learning scenarios. In addition, we show how these class representations can support reasoning under uncertainty in real-world applications. Finally, we discuss the untapped potential of the evidence-based approach for analyzing and quantifying the complexity of learning tasks, and we outline promising directions for future research.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages JMLR-Journal Machine Learning Research , 2026. Vol. 318, p. 759-770
Series
Proceedings of Machine Learning Research, ISSN 2640-3498
Keywords [en]
modal logic, evidence theory, neuro-symbolic AI, multi-valued mapping, evidential learning, class expression learning
National Category
Artificial Intelligence
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:bth-30537 ISI: 001866331300114 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:bth-30537 DiVA, id: diva2:2106652
Conference 39th Canadian Conference on Artificial Intelligence-CANADIAN AI-Annual, Burnaby, May 25-29, 2026
Part of project HINTS - Human-Centered Intelligent Realities
Funder Knowledge Foundation, 20220068 2026-09-302026-09-302026-09-30 Bibliographically approved