BACKGROUND

Technical Field

The present disclosure generally relates to artificial intelligence systems capable of conducting human-like conversations, also known as chatbots.

Description of the Related Arts

A chatbot is a piece of software that conducts a conversation via auditory or textual methods. Such programs are often designed to convincingly simulate how a human behaves as a conversation partner. Chatbots are typically used in dialog systems for purposes such as customer service or information acquisition. Simple chatbots may be implemented by scanning keywords and finding matching replies in a database. Sophisticated chatbots may rely on natural language processing.

SUMMARY

Some embodiments of the disclosure provide a chatbot system receives utterances of a conversation. The chatbot system constructs a conversation knowledge graph that includes one or more dialogue segments that correspond to utterances of the conversation. The chatbot system identifies a dialogue segment in the conversation knowledge graph having a contextual uncertainty that is detected based on a context model. The chatbot system generates a clarifying question for the identified dialogue segment having the contextual uncertainty. The chatbot system receives a clarifying answer from a user interface of the computing device to the clarifying question. The chatbot system updates the context model based on the clarifying answer to resolve the contextual uncertainty of the identified dialogue segment.

The contextual uncertainty may be detected when the context model is unable to determine an intent or an entity of the dialogue segment, or when the context model is unable to determine whether two dialogue segments in the conversation knowledge graph are distinct. In some embodiments, the clarifying question is generated by a machine learning model that is trained by answer-question pairs with their corresponding contexts.

In some embodiments, the chatbot system poses the clarifying question at the user interface and receives the clarifying answer at the user interface. The chatbot system may update the context model based on the clarifying answer by mapping the clarifying question and the clarifying answer to a response action with regard to the context model or the conversation knowledge graph. The response action may include adding, updating, or deleting a dialogue segment of the conversation knowledge graph. The response action may also include updating the context model to be able to identify an intent or an entity of the dialogue segment having the contextual uncertainty.

The preceding Summary is intended to serve as a brief introduction to some embodiments of the disclosure. It is not meant to be an introduction or overview of all inventive subject matter disclosed in this document. The Detailed Description that follows and the Drawings that are referred to in the Detailed Description will further describe the embodiments described in the Summary as well as other embodiments. Accordingly, to understand all the embodiments described by this document, a Summary, Detailed Description and the Drawings are provided. Moreover, the claimed subject matter is not to be limited by the illustrative details in the Summary, Detailed Description, and the Drawings, but rather is to be defined by the appended claims, because the claimed subject matter can be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit of the subject matter.

