KANFIS: A Neuro-Symbolic Framework for Interpretable and Uncertainty-Aware Learning
Binbin Yong, HAORAN PEI, Jun Shen, Haoran Li, Qingguo Zhou, Zhao Su
Abstract
Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) was designed to combine the learning capabilities of neural network with the reasoning transparency of fuzzy logic. However, conventional ANFIS architectures suffer from structural complexity, where the product-based inference mechanism causes an exponential explosion of rules in high-dimensional spaces. We herein propose the \textbf{K}olmogorov-\textbf{A}rnold **N**euro-**F**uzzy **I**nference **S**ystem (KANFIS), a compact neuro-symbolic architecture that unifies fuzzy reasoning with additive function decomposition. KANFIS employs an additive aggregation mechanism, under which both model parameters and rule complexity scale linearly with input dimensionality rather than exponentially. Furthermore, KANFIS is compatible with both Type-1 (T1) and Interval Type-2 (IT2) fuzzy logic systems, enabling explicit modeling of uncertainty and ambiguity in fuzzy representations. By using sparse masking mechanisms, KANFIS generates compact and structured rule sets, resulting in an intrinsically interpretable model with clear rule semantics and transparent inference processes. Empirical results demonstrate that KANFIS achieves competitive performance against representative neural and neuro-fuzzy baselines.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{
yong2026kanfis,
title={{KANFIS}: A Neuro-Symbolic Framework for Interpretable and Uncertainty-Aware Learning},
author={Binbin Yong and haoran pei and Jun Shen and Haoran Li and Qingguo Zhou and Zhao Su},
booktitle={Forty-third International Conference on Machine Learning},
year={2026},
url={https://openreview.net/forum?id=MKvy0hgAK4}
}