Large knowledge bases (KBs) are useful for many AI tasks, but are difficult to integrate into modern gradient-based learning systems. Here we describe a framework for accessing soft symbolic database using only differentiable operators. For example, this framework makes it easy to conveniently write neural models that adjust confidences associated with facts in a soft KB; incorporate prior knowledge in the form of hand-coded KB access rules; or learn to instantiate query templates using information extracted from text. NQL can work well with KBs with millions of tuples and hundreds of thousands of entities on a single GPU.
Probabilistic modeling is a powerful approach for analyzing empirical information. We describe Edward, a library for probabilistic modeling. Edward's design reflects an iterative process pioneered by George Box: build a model of a phenomenon, make inferences about the model given data, and criticize the model's fit to the data. Edward supports a broad class of probabilistic models, efficient algorithms for inference, and many techniques for model criticism. The library builds on top of TensorFlow to support distributed training and hardware such as GPUs. Edward enables the development of complex probabilistic models and their algorithms at a massive scale.