Defining dynamic topic structures for topic oriented question answer systems

A computer system for dynamically defining a plurality of topics from at least one content object used to answer a question in a question answering system, comprising:

• one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, one or more computer-readable tangible storage medium, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more tangible storage medium for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, wherein the computer system is capable of performing a method comprising:
• receiving the at least one content object;
• receiving, from a user, ground truth data comprising a plurality of question-answer pairs, wherein the user identifies a plurality of answer topics associated with the plurality of question-answer pairs;
• identifying the plurality of topics within the received at least one content object;
• generating a graph based on the identified plurality of topics, wherein the generated graph includes a plurality of nodes connected by a plurality of edges, and wherein the plurality of nodes map to the identified plurality of topics;
• calculating edge weights associated with each edge within the plurality of edges based on the received ground truth data;
• determining if the calculated edge weight associated with an edge within the plurality of edges exceeds a threshold value, wherein the threshold value dynamically increases based on a number of nodes between a first node and an analyzed node in the generated graph, and wherein the edge is connected to the analyzed node;
• and
• generating a combination topic based on determining that the edge weight associated with the edge within the plurality of edges exceeds the threshold value by including a first topic mapped to the first node and a second topic mapped to the analyzed node within the generated combination topic.