Applied artificial intelligence technology for using natural language processing to train a natural language generation system with respect to numeric style features

An apparatus for natural language processing, the apparatus comprising:

• a processor configured to (1) perform natural language processing (NLP) on training data to detect a plurality of linguistic features in the training data, wherein the training data comprises a plurality of words arranged in a natural language, and wherein the detected linguistic features include a numeric style feature, (2) generate a specification data structure based on the detected linguistic features, the specification data structure arranged for training a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data, and (3) train the NLG system based on the specification data structure to thereby configure the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data;
• and
• the trained NLG system, wherein the trained NLG system is configured to process a data set to generate a natural language output that expresses an idea derived from the processed data set, wherein the generated natural language output includes numeric data that is expressed in accordance with the numeric style feature.

A computer program product for natural language processing, the computer program product comprising:

• a plurality of processor-executable instructions that are resident on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by a processor, to cause the processor to (1) perform natural language processing (NLP) on training data to detect a plurality of linguistic features in the training data, wherein the training data comprises a plurality of words arranged in a natural language, and wherein the detected linguistic features include a numeric style feature, (2) generate a specification data structure based on the detected linguistic features, the specification data structure arranged for training a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data, and (3) train the NLG system based on the specification data structure to thereby configure the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data, wherein the trained NLG system is configured to process a data set to generate a natural language output that expresses an idea derived from the processed data set, wherein the generated natural language output includes numeric data that is expressed in accordance with the numeric style feature.