BACKGROUND

1. Technical Field

This disclosure relates generally to methods and apparatus for the AI self-supervised creation of hierarchically semantically labeled documents and/or for the assisted authoring and processing of such documents.

2. Description of Related Art

Many businesses create multiple documents that are quite similar even though they are customized each time. For example, an insurance office may produce many proposals for a particular kind of insurance, but each must be tailored to the particular customer's needs. These documents can be considered to be of the same “type,” because they have similar text (and possibly image) content (reflecting similar purposes and topics), similar selections and arrangements of large units such as sections, and often even similar geometric layout and formatting characteristics.

Some types of documents are widely known and used, but many are not. Many are specific to a particular business, market, or application, and new ones are created for new situations. Users who may be called “authors” or “editors” commonly create new documents of a particular type (sometimes called “target documents”) by copying an earlier document of the same type and then making changes as needed, for example by manually editing or replacing certain chunks of content.

In current practice, word processing identifies chunks typically only if needed to achieve formatting: for example, headings, footnotes, and figures may be explicitly marked in order to obtain special formatting; but names, addresses, or dates are rarely explicitly marked. Even when identified, chunks are commonly associated only with formatting effects (such as margins, fonts, and so on) which are useful information, but do not directly provide any indication of their datatypes or semantic roles. Similarly, word processors often represent hierarchical containment only visually: there is often no explicit representation of nested sections per se, but only of differently formatted headings.

When creating a new document of the same general kind as prior documents, in many cases the bulk of the work is text editing, replacement, removal, or insertion of certain chunks, being careful not to confuse ones that have different semantic roles (such as swapping buyer and seller addresses). This typically requires human intervention because authoring systems typically know nothing of these chunks, particularly their datatypes or semantic roles, and therefore cannot help very effectively.

In some simple cases, “forms” and “templates” may be used, providing explicit places to fill in content for particular chunks. However, forms typically address only simple cases, where substantially all the needed chunks can be enumerated ahead of time, and where there are few large, repeatable, or highly-structured chunks. Forms also require skilled effort to create, are difficult to adjust to changing circumstances, and do not actively assist the writer.

