The history of idea of artificial intelligence and the ways of its implementation are observed in the paper. The authors select researches based on autoepistemic logic as a perspective line of development of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence (AI) is considered as a system that imitates the process of decision making by a man, when a man solves complex tasks. The paper introduces the intellectual tradition of artificial intelligence: this tradition goes back to the Aristotle's "Physics" and Plato's "Dialogs". The premises and grounds for the artificial intelligence theory are disclosed as well. The structure of symbols and operations are considered as basic questions of analysis of artificial intelligence and AI applications. Expert systems are interpreted as a variety of intelligence system. Different methods of knowledge representation (logical model, frame systems and production systems, semantic networks) are designated in the article. These methods are realized within the scope of a cognitive trend of AI investigation. The authors assert that knowledge representation is a methodology of modeling and formalization of conceptual knowledge in the sphere of knowledge engineering.