International Business Machines Corporation

Edward Graham Katz

Charles Evan Beller

Alexander Charles Tonetti

Kristen Maria Summers

Christopher Phipps

John A Riendeau

Sean Thomas Thatcher

Michael Drzewucki

Christopher F Ackermann

Paul J Chase, Jr

Richard L Darden

Stephen Arthur Boxwell

William G Dubyak

Nicole O'Connor

Allen Ginsberg

Donna Karen Byron

Andrew Doyle

Sean L Bethard

Michael S Purdy

Richard Behrens, Jr

James E Ramirez

Gregory M J H Tkaczyk

Brian L Keith

John S Quimby

A processor may identify an anomaly in one or more communications. A processor may monitor the one or more communications for an utterance. A processor may perform natural language processing (NLP) on the utterance. A processor may generate an understanding of the utterance using natural language understanding (NLU). A processor may detect the anomaly from the understanding of the utterance. A processor may execute a response, responsive to detecting the anomaly.

Identification of anomalies in air traffic control communications

A method for adjusting device system settings in response to analysis of displayed content. In some embodiments, a processor may extract content from contents displayed on a screen of a device. The processor may analyze features of the content. The processor may classify the content as belonging to a content class, based on analysis of the content features, utilizing a machine learning model. The processor may update the device system settings based on the content class.

Adjusting system settings based on displayed content

Provided are a method, system, and computer program product in which operations are performed to receive a question that includes a descriptor and an indication that indicates that a unique answer to the question is expected. A determination is made of instances of matching descriptors and descriptor targets from a set of documents. The determined descriptor targets are compared for consistency. In response to determining that the determined descriptor targets are inconsistent, more restrictive descriptors are iteratively generated via a selection model based on metadata associated with the question until the descriptor targets are consistent. An answer to the question is returned from consistent descriptor targets.

Identification of restrictors to form unique descriptions for generation of answers to questions

An embodiment for expanding a search query is provided. The embodiment may include receiving a stopping criterion for stopping a search. The embodiment may also include receiving an initial search query. The embodiment may further include submitting the initial search query to an information retrieval system. The embodiment may also include identifying enrichment terms from the retrieved initial set of documents. The embodiment may further include generating a subsequent search query that includes one or more enrichment terms from the retrieved initial set of documents. The embodiment may also include submitting the subsequent search query to the information retrieval system. The embodiment may further include determining whether the stopping criterion is met, and in response to determining the stopping criterion is not met, iterating identifying, generating, submitting steps until the stopping criterion is met.

Iterative query expansion for document discovery

A controller generating a knowledge graph of entries, each entry comprising a separate entity identifier and a separate entity mention identifier within a separate document of a corpus of documents with a located relationship and one or more computed prefix-based geotemporal values determined from geotemporal information associated with the separate entity mention identifier within the separate document. The controller, in response to receiving an input comprising a particular entity and a threshold value, mapping the threshold value to a geospatial hash prefix type and a temporal hash prefix type. The controller applying geospatial hash prefix type and the temporal hash prefix type to the entries in the knowledge graph to determine a response to the input indicating one or more geotemporal proximate entities identified within a degree of geotemporal proximity to the particular entity set by the threshold value.

Analyzing geotemporal proximity of entities through a knowledge graph

A system, computer program product, and method are provided for use with an intelligent computer platform to identify intent and convert the intent to one or more physical actions. The aspect of converting intent includes receiving content, identifying potential variants, and statistically analyzing the variants with a confidence assessment. The variants are sorted based on a protocol associated with the confidence assessment. A variant from the sort is selected and applied to a physical device, which performs a physical action and an associated hardware transformation based on the variant.

Identifying intent in dialog data through variant assessment

A method learns approximate translations of unfamiliar measurement units during deep question answering (DeepQA) system training and usage. The DeepQA system receives a training set containing Question-Answer (QA) pairs having known unit-of-measurement terms, where each QA pair contains an answer having a known numeric value for a corresponding question from the QA pair. The DeepQA system receives a question from each QA pair from the training set to the DeepQA system in order to find answers and passage phrases to the question from each QA pair, and then identifies all found answers and passage phrases having values that are within a predetermined range of answer values of the training set, where one or more of the identified all found answers and passage phrases contain unfamiliar unit-of-measurement terms, in order to learn approximate translations of the unfamiliar unit-of-measurement terms.

Learning approximate translations of unfamiliar measurement units during deep question answering system training and usage

A mechanism is provided in a data processing system to implement a cognitive natural language processing (NLP) system with descriptor uniqueness identification to support named entity mention clustering. The mechanism annotates a set of documents from a corpus of documents for entity types and mentions, collects descriptor usages from all documents in the corpus of documents, analyzes the descriptor usages to classify the descriptors as base terms or modifier terms, generates compatibility scores for the descriptors, and performs entity merging of entity clusters based on the compatibility scores.

Descriptor uniqueness for entity clustering

A method, system, and computer-usable medium are disclosed for answering general background questions on a topic from documents with glossary sections, A set of documents with glossaries is received from which a set of terms and associated glossary entries are extracted, where each term has a corresponding glossary entry. Association is performed of related glossary entries. The associations is based on a similarity algorithm to form glossary clusters where each glossary cluster refers to one or more glossary entries. A query with query terms tailored to general information is received. The glossary clusters are ranked relevance to the query terms to form a ranked set. A set of glossary clusters meeting a high ranked threshold is selected and provided.

System and method for question answering with derived glossary clusters

A controller, responsive to detecting geospatial and temporal information associated with a mention of an entity in a document, for converting the geospatial information into a specified geospatial format and the temporal information into a specified temporal format. The controller for computing prefix-based geospatial values for the converted geospatial information and prefix-based temporal values for the converted temporal information. The controller for encoding an entry in a knowledge graph for the mention of the entity from the document with the prefix-based geospatial values and the prefix-based temporal values, wherein each digit of the prefix-based geospatial values and the prefix-based temporal values in the knowledge graph that matches another one or more prefix-based geospatial values and another one or more prefix-based temporal values in another entry for another entity mention in the knowledge graph reflects a degree of granularity of geotemporal proximity of the entity and the another entity.

Encoding knowledge graph entries with searchable geotemporal values for evaluating transitive geotemporal proximity of entity mentions

A controller accesses an initial taxonomy for a domain comprising one or more existing terms for the domain identified in a hierarchical structure. The controller analyzes a corpus documents for a domain to identify a selection of one or more documents with glossaries. The controller extracts, from the glossaries, one or more pairs each comprising a term and a definition. The controller attempts to map a respective term of each of the one or more pairs into the initial taxonomy for the domain based on text of a respective definition of each of the one or more pairs to generate an updated taxonomy for the domain.

Automatically extending a domain taxonomy to the level of granularity present in glossaries in documents

A method utilizes a deep question answering (QA) system to provide an answer, to a certain type of question, that includes an unfamiliar measurement unit. An answer key is utilized to train a DeepQA system to search for passages that answer a certain type of question, where the DeepQA system outputs an answer key value and an answer key measurement unit that is associated with the answer key value. The method identifies a candidate answer that includes a candidate passage containing the answer key value but not the answer key measurement unit, where a candidate passage measurement unit in the candidate passage is associated with the answer key value. The method then matches the answer key measurement unit to the candidate passage measurement unit based on the answer key measurement unit and the candidate passage measurement unit both being associated with the answer key value.

Learning unfamiliar measurement units in a deep question answering system

A system and a method for determining user synonyms in a query processing system is disclosed. A first query is received from a user of the query processing system. The query is processed through the query processing system to generate results for the first query. The user then provides a second query. The system determines a contextual similarity between the first query and the second query. When the first query and the second query are determined to be contextually similar, a first term is identified in the first query that is different from a second term in the second query. Once identified, the system determines if the first term and the second term are not listed as synonyms in the thesaurus. If they are not listed as synonyms they can be added as synonyms to the thesaurus.

Learning user synonyms from sequenced query sessions

Embodiments are provided that relate to a computer system, a computer program product, and a machine-implemented method for assessing a statement by an entity to a recipient group, particularly in a social media environment, for an inconsistency with a previous (historical) statement to the same recipient group, and notifying the entity of the inconsistency. In certain embodiments, an alternative statement is provided.

Assessment of inconsistent statements to a recipient group

A method, computer system, and a computer program product for converting a plurality of factoid answers into a plurality of structured relations for storage in a structured knowledge base is provided. The present invention may include receiving a query from a user. The present invention may also include generating a plurality of possible factoid answers. The present invention may then include determining a plurality of confidence scores for the plurality of possible factoid answers. The present invention may then include generating a plurality of certain factoid answers from the plurality of possible factoid answers. The present invention may then include identifying a plurality of special target items. The present invention may further include generating a plurality of structured relations for each certain factoid answer and the identified plurality of special target items. The present include may also include storing the generated plurality of structured relations into the structured knowledge base.

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Washington, DC, United States of America

Edward Graham Katz