BACKGROUND

The present disclosure relates generally to the field of automated question answering and, more particularly, to frequently asked question (“FAQ”) answering.

Automated question-answer (“QA”) systems have applied information retrieval (“IR”) and natural language processing (“NLP”) techniques to answer questions posed by humans in natural languages. A QA system may construct its answers by querying a knowledge base comprising one or more corpora. Each such corpus may comprise a database or other collection of structured or unstructured natural language documents or other information.

SUMMARY

A method for answering a natural language question posed by a user is disclosed. The method includes receiving the natural language question. The method also includes determining, from a chat log comprising a plurality of chat session logs, a set of chat session logs most relevant to the natural language question. The method also includes determining a respective plurality of non-overlapping text spans most relevant to the natural language question within each of a respective plurality of conceptual pseudo-documents. The method also includes determining a conceptual pseudo-document most relevant to the natural language question. The method also includes extracting a question-answer pair most relevant to the natural language question from the most relevant pseudo-document. The method also includes conveying the most relevant question-answer pair to the user. Each one of the conceptual pseudo-documents corresponds to a respective one of the most relevant chat session logs.

A system for answering a natural language question posed by a user is also disclosed. The system includes a memory having instructions therein and at least one processor in communication with the memory. The at least one processor is configured to execute the instructions to receive the natural language question. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to determine, from a chat log comprising a plurality of chat session logs, a set of chat session logs most relevant to the natural language question. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to determine a respective plurality of non-overlapping text spans most relevant to the natural language question within each of a respective plurality of conceptual pseudo-documents. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to determine a conceptual pseudo-document most relevant to the natural language question. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to extract a question-answer pair most relevant to the natural language question from the most relevant pseudo-document. The at least one processor is also configured to execute the instructions to convey the most relevant question-answer pair to the user. Each one of the conceptual pseudo-documents corresponds to a respective one of the most relevant chat session logs.

A computer program product for answering a natural language question posed by a user is also disclosed. The computer program product includes a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are executable by at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to receive the natural language question. The program instructions are also executable by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to determine, from a chat log comprising a plurality of chat session logs, a set of chat session logs most relevant to the natural language question. The program instructions are also executable by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to determine a respective plurality of non-overlapping text spans most relevant to the natural language question within each of a respective plurality of conceptual pseudo-documents. The program instructions are also executable by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to determine a conceptual pseudo-document most relevant to the natural language question. The program instructions are also executable by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to extract a question-answer pair most relevant to the natural language question from the most relevant pseudo-document. The program instructions are also executable by the at least one processor to cause the at least one processor to convey the most relevant question-answer pair to the user. Each one of the conceptual pseudo-documents corresponds to a respective one of the most relevant chat session logs.

