Amazon Technologies, Inc.

Eliav Kahan

Gregory Newell

Ravi Chandra Reddy Yasa

Joel Toledano

Sai Rahul Reddy Pulikunta

David Suarez

Abhijit Satchidanand Savarkar

David Allen Smith

Matthew Fuller Sly

Techniques for performing conversation recovery of a system/user exchange are described. In response to determining that an action responsive to a user input cannot be performed, a system may determine a topic to recommend to a user. The topic may be unrelated to the original substance of the user input. The system may have access to various data representing a context in which a user provides an input to the system. The system may use these inputs and various data at runtime to make a determination regarding whether a user should be recommended a topic, as well as what that topic should be. The system may cause a question be output to the user, with the question asking the user about the topic, for example whether the user would like a song played, whether the user would like to hear information about a particular individual (e.g., artist), whether the user would like to know about a particular skill (e.g., a skill having a significantly high popularity among users of the system), or whether the user would like to know about some other topic. If the user responds affirmatively to the recommended topic, the system may pass the user experience off to an appropriate component of the system (e.g., one that is configured to perform an action related to the topic). If the user responds negatively, does not respond at all, or the system is unsure whether the user's response was affirmative or negative, the system may cease interaction with the user, thereby enabling the user to interact with the system as the user desires.

Alternate response generation

Exemplary embodiments relate to a system for recovering a conversation between a user and the system when the system is unable to properly respond to a user's input. The system may process the user input and determine an error condition exists. The system may query one or more storage systems to identify candidate text data based on their semantic similarity to the user input. The storage systems may store data related to past frequently entered inputs and/or user-generated inputs. Alternative text data is selected from the candidate text data, and presented to the user for confirmation.

Generating input alternatives

Techniques for selectively requesting feedback from users are described. A system may receive a user input and perform an action responsive to the user input. The system may determine whether feedback should be requested from the user. Such determination may be based on various signals such as the user's present emotional state, whether the user input included profanity, whether the user input interrupted an output of the system, etc. When the system determines feedback should be requested, the system may select a feedback prompt pre-established by a domain, skill, or the like. After the system outputs the response to the user input, the system may output the feedback prompt.

Prompts for user feedback

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Jamaica Plain, MA, United States of America

Eliav Kahan