Apple Inc.

Luca Simonelli

Kurt W Piersol

Timothy Robert Oriol

Jessica J Peck

Nathan Taylor

Lewis N Perkins

Blaise Thomson

Thorvaldur Pall Helgason

Stephen J Young

Thomas David Voice

Diarmuid Ó Séaghdha

Cedric Bray

Anders Johannsen

Helmut Garstenauer

Federico Flego

Keith S Brisson

Systems and processes for operating a digital assistant are provided. An example method includes, at an electronic device with one or more processors and memory, while an application is open on the electronic device: receiving a spoken input including a command, determining whether the command matches at least a portion of a metadata associated with an action of the application, and in accordance with a determination that the command matches at least the portion of the metadata associated with the action of the application, associating the command with the action, storing the association of the command with the action for subsequent use with the application by the digital assistant, and executing the action with the application.

Digital assistant control of applications

Systems and processes for operating a digital assistant using a hierarchical belief state are disclosed. In an example process, a user utterance of a dialog is received. A belief state for the dialog is determined. The belief state comprises a plurality of dialog slots. Each dialog slot of the plurality of dialog slots includes a respective marginal certainty for a concept or property represented by the respective dialog slot. A first dialog slot of the plurality of dialog slots further includes one or more joint certainties for one or more interpretations arising from the first dialog slot. Based on the marginal certainty of each dialog slot of the plurality of dialog slots and the one or more joint certainties of the first dialog slot, a policy action is selected from a plurality of candidate policy actions that correspond to the belief state. The selected policy action is performed.

Hierarchical belief states for digital assistants

Growing community of inventors

Cambridge, United Kingdom

Luca Simonelli