Inferring procedural knowledge from data sources

摘要

A procedural inference system is described herein that infers procedural knowledge from various data sources to help a user complete one or more tasks for which the data sources provide information. The system understands users' queries, identifies a task at hand, provides recommendations on the steps to take and the agents to use based on a knowledge base of tasks and agents, and provides the fabric to determine which different agents can work together to help the user accomplish a task. Tasks can be started on one device and completed on another seamlessly. Users are able to finish complex, multi-step tasks efficiently, without trial and error or data reentry. Thus, the procedural inference system provides a generalized framework that helps users to complete tasks using already available data and does not ask each data provider to invest in infrastructure to build dedicated task information systems.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method to gather task information from data sources to build and maintain a procedural knowledge base, the method comprising:
crawling one or more data sources; identifying with a knowledge induction component operating on a computer system, procedural information within the data sources; identifying task stages within the identified procedural information, wherein a task stage is a portion of a task; ordering the identified task stages to determine one or more potential task sequences; identifying tasks from the task sequences produced by the ordering; formatting task information produced by the previous steps into a structured task knowledge base that includes actionable task information; and storing the structured task knowledge base in preparation for receiving one or more queries to complete tasks, wherein the preceding steps are performed by at least one processor, and a knowledge induction component that gathers data from one or more data sources, identifies procedural steps within the data, infers new knowledge from existing knowledge when at least two discovered facts infer at least one new fact ire the existing knowledge, and stores structured task information in the task knowledge base.