Results of Question and Answer Systems

A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:

• receive an input question;
• process the input question to generate at least one query to be applied to a corpus of information;
• apply the at least one query to the corpus of information to generate candidate answers to the input question;
• select a final answer from the candidate answers for output;
• and
• modify, by a training engine associated with the data processing system, using a machine learning technique that compares the final answer to a known correct answer known to be a correct answer for the input question, at least one of logic or configuration parameters of the QA system for at least one of the processing of the input question to generate the at least one query, applying of the at least one query to the corpus of information to generate the candidate answers, or the selecting of the final answer from the candidate answers.

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
• receive an input question;
• process the input question to generate at least one query to be applied to a corpus of information;
• apply the at least one query to the corpus of information to generate candidate answers to the input question;
• select a final answer from the candidate answers for output;
• and
• modify, by a training engine associated with the data processing system, using a machine learning technique that compares the final answer to a known correct answer known to be a correct answer for the input question, at least one of logic or configuration parameters of the QA system for at least one of the processing of the input question to generate the at least one query, applying of the at least one query to the corpus of information to generate the candidate answers, or the selecting of the final answer from the candidate answers.