GENERATING RESPONSES TO ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS WITH A QUESTION ANSWERING SYSTEM

• US 20160063381A1
• Filed: 09/19/2014
• Published: 03/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 08/27/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Allen, Corville O., Carey, James E., Li, Jenny S., Mysak, John S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,019,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/33 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3331 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90335 Query processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

Text is received from a first client. The text is associated with an electronic communication tool for communication to a second client. Candidate answers are generated based on the text using a question answering system. The question answering system generates the candidate answers based on a plurality of data sources, including at least one personalized data source and at least one informational data source. At least one of the candidate answers is provided to the second client. Each of the candidate answers provided to the second client is selectable.

Claims

1. A method for generating responses to an electronic communication, the method comprising:

receiving text from a first client, the text associated with an electronic communication tool for communication to a second client;

generating candidate answers based on the text using a question answering system, the question answering system generating the candidate answers based on a plurality of data sources comprising at least one personalized data source and at least one informational data source; and

providing at least one of the candidate answers to the second client, each of the at least one candidate answers selectable by the second client.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selected answer from the second client, the selected answer from the at least one candidate answers; and

communicating the selected answer to the first client.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the text is received prior to the first client communicating the text to the second client.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating confidence scores for the candidate answers; and

selecting the at least one candidate answers, from the generated candidate answers, based on the confidence scores.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the calculated confidence scores are higher for candidate answers generated based on the at least one personalized data source.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

providing, to the second client, respective confidence scores for the at least one candidate answers.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

identifying a highest confidence score from the confidence scores; and

communicating a candidate answer associated with the highest confidence score to the first client in response to a specified period of time elapsing after communication of the text to the second client.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of data sources comprises an access-restricted data source, the access-restricted data source accessible by the second client.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the electronic communication tool is an instant messaging program.