US 2019/0156220 A1Published application

Using machine comprehension to answer a question

AssigneeMicrosoft Technology Licensing, LLC

InventorsChenguang Zhu, Hsin-Yuan Huang, Pengcheng He, Weizhu Chen, Yelong Shen, Zheng Chen

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Abstract

Systems and methods for machine comprehension are provided. In example embodiments, a machine accesses a context and a question related to the context. The machine determines a low-level meaning of the question and a low-level meaning of the context, the low-level meaning corresponding to words or phrases. The machine determines a high-level meaning of the question and a high-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning corresponding to sentences or paragraphs. The machine computes, for each position i in the context, a first probability that an answer to the question starts at the position i. The machine computes, for each position j in the context, a second probability that the answer to the question ends at the position j. The machine determines the answer to the question based on the computed first probabilities and the computed second probabilities.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system comprising:

processing circuitry;
and
a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processing circuitry, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:
accessing a context of text and a question related to the context, the context of text comprising a listing of words, each word having a position;
determining a low-level meaning of the question and a low-level meaning of the context, the low-level meaning corresponding to words or phrases;
determining a high-level meaning of the question and a high-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning corresponding to sentences or paragraphs;
computing, for each position i in the context, a first probability that an answer to the question starts at the position i, the first probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
computing, for each position j in the context, a second probability that the answer to the question ends at the position j, the second probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
determining the answer to the question based on the computed first probabilities and the computed second probabilities, the answer to the question comprising a contiguous sub-listing of the words in the context;
and
providing an output representing the answer to the question.

8 more elements

A non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by processing circuitry of one or more machines, cause the processing circuitry to perform operations comprising:

accessing a context of text and a question related to the context, the context of text comprising a listing of words, each word having a position;
determining a low-level meaning of the question and a low-level meaning of the context, the low-level meaning corresponding to words or phrases;
determining a high-level meaning of the question and a high-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning corresponding to sentences or paragraphs;
computing, for each position i in the context, a first probability that an answer to the question starts at the position i, the first probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
computing, for each position j in the context, a second probability that the answer to the question ends at the position j, the second probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
determining the answer to the question based on the computed first probabilities and the computed second probabilities, the answer to the question comprising a contiguous sub-listing of the words in the context;
and
providing an output representing the answer to the question.

5 more elements

A method comprising:

accessing a context of text and a question related to the context, the context of text comprising a listing of words, each word having a position;
determining a low-level meaning of the question and a low-level meaning of the context, the low-level meaning corresponding to words or phrases;
determining a high-level meaning of the question and a high-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning corresponding to sentences or paragraphs;
computing, for each position i in the context, a first probability that an answer to the question starts at the position i, the first probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
computing, for each position j in the context, a second probability that the answer to the question ends at the position j the second probability being based on the low-level meaning of the question, the low-level meaning of the context, the high-level meaning of the question, and the high-level meaning of the context;
determining the answer to the question based on the computed first probabilities and the computed second probabilities, the answer to the question comprising a contiguous sub-listing of the words in the context;
and
providing an output representing the answer to the question.

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.