User-defined extensions of the command input recognized by a virtual assistant

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving a first natural language input from a virtual assistant application on a client device of a first user;
• interpreting the first natural language input as defining a rule having a trigger and a corresponding action;
• storing the rule in a persistent rules store;
• identifying the rule as a generic rule, based on a plurality of other natural language rules received from a plurality of users different from the first user;
• storing the rule in a generic rules store;
• receiving a second natural language input from a virtual assistant application on a client device of second first user;
• determining that the second natural language input matches the rule's trigger;
• and
• responsive to determining that the second language input matches the rule's trigger, executing the action;
• wherein identifying the rule as a generic rule comprises:
• identifying other rules in the generic rules store that are semantically equivalent to the rule;
• and
• computing a generalization score for the rule using the identified other rules.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• receiving a first natural language input from a virtual assistant application on a client device of a first user;
• interpreting the first natural language input as defining a rule having a trigger, a context condition, and a corresponding action;
• storing the rule in a persistent rules store;
• identifying the rule as a generic rule, based on a plurality of other natural language rules received from a plurality of users different from the first user, the identifying comprising computing a generalization score for the rule based on scores of rules sharing the trigger;
• storing the rule in a generic rules store;
• receiving a second natural language input from a virtual assistant application on a client device;
• determining that the second natural language input matches the rule's trigger;
• determining whether the context condition is satisfied;
• responsive to the context condition being satisfied, executing the action;
• and
• responsive to the context condition not being satisfied, refraining from executing the action.