Providing intelligent inquiries in question answer systems

摘要

A method, a system and a computer program product for selecting a further inquiry for a user to clarify a request for information from the user. One or more candidate answers to the request for information from the user are determined, and a score value is generated for each of one or more characteristics of each candidate answer, where at least one characteristic is associated with an inquiry for the user to clarify the request for information. A characteristic associated with an inquiry is determined that includes score values providing the greatest potential adjustment for the candidate answers in response to a clarification of the request for information, and the inquiry is selected that is associated with the determined characteristic for presentation to the user.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method of selecting a clarifying inquiry for a user to clarify a request for information comprising:
determining a plurality of candidate answers to the request for information from the user, each candidate answer having a corresponding clarifying inquiry, wherein at least one candidate answer has an ambiguous term that is interpreted in two or more different ways and the clarifying inquiry is to ascertain a desired interpretation of the ambiguous term; generating a score value for each of one or more characteristics of each candidate answer, wherein at least one characteristic is associated with the clarifying inquiry for the user to clarify the request for information; determining a corresponding weighting value for each characteristic; determining the characteristic associated with the clarifying inquiry that provides a greatest potential adjustment for the candidate answers in response to a clarification of the request for information, wherein the determined characteristic is based upon a greatest weighted score value associated with the candidate answer comprising the ambiguous term for a respective category of characteristics, and wherein the weighted score value is determined by multiplying a reciprocal of the score value by the corresponding weighting value for a characteristic associated with each candidate answer; and selecting the clarifying inquiry associated with the determined characteristic for presentation to the user.