Enhanced Answers in DeepQA System According to User Preferences

A computer program product for using user preferences to customize answer output comprising:

• a computer readable, tangible storage device;
• and
• program instructions stored by the computer readable, tangible storage device, which, when executed by a processor, cause a computing platform to:
• for a first user and a first question:
• extract by a natural language processor from the question one or more user preferences and one or more sentiment levels;
• perform a semantic search on of the first question;
• receive a plurality of candidate answers from the semantic search;
• select one or more of the received candidate answers, wherein the selection is performed both according to the one or more sentiment levels and according to the one or more user preferences;
• and
• produce a first user output including the selected one or more candidate answers;
• for a second question and a second user, repeat the step of extracting preferences from the second question;
• accumulate the preferences and sentiments extracted from the second question with the preferences and sentiments extracted from the first question;
• and
• for the second question, repeat the steps of performing a semantic search, receiving candidate answers, selecting candidate answers according to the accumulated preferences and sentiments, and producing a second output.

A system for using user preferences to customize answer output comprising:

• a computing platform having a processor;
• a computer readable, tangible storage device;
• and
• program instructions stored by the computer readable, tangible storage device, which, when executed by the processor, cause a computing platform to:
• for a first user and a first question:
• extract by a natural language processor from the question one or more user preferences and one or more sentiment levels;
• perform a semantic search on of the first question;
• receive a plurality of candidate answers from the semantic search;
• select one or more of the received candidate answers, wherein the selection is performed both according to the one or more sentiment levels and according to the one or more user preferences;
• and
• produce a first user output including the selected one or more candidate answers;
• for a second question and a second user, repeat the step of extracting preferences from the second question;
• accumulate the preferences and sentiments extracted from the second question with the preferences and sentiments extracted from the first question;
• and
• for the second question, repeat the steps of performing a semantic search, receiving candidate answers, selecting candidate answers according to the accumulated preferences and sentiments, and producing a second output.