Knowledge prompting: How knowledge engineers use generative AI

Despite many advances in knowledge engineering (KE), challenges remain in areas such as engineering knowledge graphs (KGs) at scale, automating tasks, and keeping pace with evolving domain knowledge. KE has used NLP demonstrating notable advantages in knowledge-intensive tasks, but the most effective use of generative AI to support knowledge engineers across the KE activities is still in its infancy. To explore how generative AI may enhance KE and change existing KE practices, we conducted a multi-method study during a KE hackathon. We investigated participants’ views on the use of generative AI, the challenges they face, the skills they may need to integrate generative AI into their practices, and how they use generative AI responsibly. We found participants felt LLMs could indeed contribute to improving efficiency when engineering KGs, but presented increased challenges around the already complex issues of evaluating KE task success. We discovered prompting to be a useful but undervalued skill for knowledge engineers working with LLMs, and note that NLP skills may become more relevant across more roles in KE workflows. Integrating generative AI into KE tasks needs to be done with awareness of potential risks and harms. Given the limited ethical training most knowledge engineers receive, solutions such as our proposed ‘KG Cards’ based on Data Cards could be a useful guide for KG construction. Our findings can support designers of KE AI copilots, KE researchers, and practitioners using advanced AI to develop trustworthy applications, propose new methodologies for KE and operate new technologies responsibly.