Functional inductive logic programming with queries to the user

Abstract

The FILP learning system induces functional logic programs from positive examples. For every predicate P, the user is asked to provide a mode (input or output) for each of its argument, and the system assumes that the mode corresponds to a total function, i.e., for a given input there is one and only one corresponding output that makes the predicate true. Functionality serves two goals: it restricts the hypothesis space and it allows the system to ask existential queries to the user. By means of these queries, missing examples can be added to the ones given initially, and this makes the learned programs complete and consistent and the system adequate for learning multiple predicates and recursive clauses in a reliable manner.