Supporting combinations of intents in a conversation

• US 10,776,582 B2
• Filed: 06/06/2018
• Issued: 09/15/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2018
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Redmond, Robert N., Pinel, Florian, Byron, Donna K., Spann, Will
• Primary Examiner(s): Vo, Huyen X
• Application Number:
  US16/001,777
• Publication Number:
  US 20190377790A1
• Time in Patent Office: 832 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/295 Named entity recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/04 Real-time or near real-time messaging, e.g. instant messaging [IM]

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for supporting combinations of intents in a conversation service. In one embodiment, the computer-implemented method provides a conversation service using a set of conversation trees. Each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees comprises a list of intents that define how to answer to a certain type of user input. The computer-implemented method creates an intent graph using the list of intents of each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees. The computer-implemented method adds composite intents to the set of conversation trees using the intent graph to generate a set of updated conversation trees. The computer-implemented method configures the conversation service to use the set of updated conversation trees that comprises composite intents for supporting combinations of intents.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for supporting combinations of intents, the computer-implemented method comprising:

providing a conversation service included in a chatbot system using a set of conversation trees, each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees comprises a list of intents that define how to answer to a certain type of user input;

creating an intent graph using the list of intents of each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees;

adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees using the intent graph to generate a set of updated conversation trees; and

configuring the conversation service included in the chatbot system to use the set of updated conversation trees that comprises composite intents to interpret a natural language input.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein creating the intent graph using the list of intents of each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees comprises:

determining an entity input and entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees; and

assembling the entity input and the entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees to create the intent graph.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees comprises generating a sample utterance for a new composite intent.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein generating the sample utterance for the new composite intent comprises:

removing output entities from a first sample utterance for a first intent node of the new composite intent to produce a first portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent;

removing input entities from a second sample utterance for a second intent node of the new composite intent to produce a second portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent; and

combining the first portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent and second portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent to generate the sample utterance for the new composite intent.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees comprises:

assessing a user interest in a new composite intent prior to adding the new composite intent to the set of conversation trees by determining whether the user interest in the new composite intent exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

adding the new composite intent to the set of conversation trees in response to a determination that the user interest in the new composite intent exceeds the predetermined threshold.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein assessing the user interest in the new composite intent comprises:

parsing a conversation log; and

determining a number of user inputs that would be routed to the new composite intent.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein assessing the user interest in the new composite intent comprises:

parsing a conversation log; and

determining how often a first intent and a second intent that constitute the new composite intent are called in sequence within a predetermined period.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees comprises adding a new intent node to at least one of the conversation trees in the set of conversation trees that includes an original intent that forms part of a new composite intent.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees comprises adding the composite intents to a new conversation tree dedicated to composite intents.

10. A chatbot system configured to support combinations of intents, the system comprising memory for storing instructions, and a processor configured to execute the instructions to:

provide a conversation service included in the chatbot system using a set of conversation trees, each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees comprises a list of intents that define how to answer to a certain type of user input;

create an intent graph using the list of intents of each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees;

add composite intents to the set of conversation trees using the intent graph to generate a set of updated conversation trees; and

configure the conversation service included in the chatbot system to use the set of updated conversation trees that comprises composite intents to interpret a natural language input.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor further executes instructions to:

extract an entity input and entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees; and

assemble the entity input and the entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees to create the intent graph.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the processor further executes instructions to generate a sample utterance for a new composite intent.

13. A computer program product for supporting combinations of intents, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to:

provide a conversation service included in a chatbot system using a set of conversation trees, each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees comprises a list of intents that define how to answer to a certain type of user input;

create an intent graph using the list of intents of each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees;

add composite intents to the set of conversation trees using the intent graph to generate a set of updated conversation trees; and

configure the conversation service included in the chatbot system to use the set of updated conversation trees that comprises composite intents to interpret a natural language input.

14. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to:

determine an entity input and entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees; and

assemble the entity input and the entity outputs for each intent in the list of intents for each conversation tree within the set of conversation trees to create the intent graph.

15. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to generate a sample utterance for a new composite intent.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to:

remove output entities from a first sample utterance for a first intent node of the new composite intent to produce a first portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent;

remove input entities from a second sample utterance for a second intent node of the new composite intent to produce a second portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent; and

combine the first portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent and second portion of the sample utterance for the new composite intent to generate the sample utterance for the new composite intent.

17. The computer program product of claim 13, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to:

assess a user interest in a new composite intent prior to adding the new composite intent to the set of conversation trees by determining whether the user interest in the new composite intent exceeds a predetermined threshold; and

add the new composite intent to the set of conversation trees in response to a determination that the user interest in the new composite intent exceeds the predetermined threshold.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to:

parse a conversation log; and

determine a number of user inputs that would be routed to the new composite intent.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, further comprising program instructions executable by the processor to cause the processor to:

parse a conversation log; and

determine how often a first intent and a second intent that constitute the new composite intent are called in sequence within a predetermined period.

20. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein adding composite intents to the set of conversation trees comprises adding a new intent node to at least one of the conversation trees in the set of conversation trees that includes an original intent that forms part of a new composite intent.