# US 2019/0318221 A1 · Dispersed batch interaction with a question answering system > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2019/0318221 A1 - Document ID: US20190318221A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 15/952,860 - Filed: 2018-04-13 - Published: 2019-10-17 - Earliest claimed: 2018-04-13 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: International Business Machines Corporation - Inventors: Charles E. Beller; William G. Dubyak; Palani Sakthi; Kristen M. Summers - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20190318221A1 ## CPC - G06N 3/006: based on simulated virtual individual or collective life forms, e.g. social simulations or particle swarm optimisation [PSO] - G06N 5/04: Inference or reasoning models - G06N 5/02: Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation - G06N: COMPUTING ARRANGEMENTS BASED ON SPECIFIC COMPUTATIONAL MODELS ## Abstract Embodiments are directed to interaction with an open-domain question and answer system by recognizing questions that are highly broad or abstract, and generating and processing a batch of questions expressing alternate, concrete instances of the more general, abstract question. Responses to all of the questions in the batch are considered as candidates, and the strongest general answers are returned. A weighted, ranked answer set, based on weighting individual concrete questions and scaling the answers proportional to the weight of the questions, is provided to the user. The approach, according to embodiments herein, addresses the need for responses to broad questions in which a response to any of a set of more concrete question instances may serve to answer the question. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A computer implemented method for answering general questions in an information handling system capable of answering questions, the system comprising a processor and a memory comprising instructions executed by the processor, the method comprising: receiving a general question by a user; running a first set of specific questions to obtain a set of specific answers to answer the general question; and returning at least one answer from the set of specific answers to the general question to the user. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: providing a user interface (UI) allowing the user to adjust the first set of specific questions to generate an adjusted set of specific questions; running the adjusted set of specific questions to obtain an adjusted set of specific answers; aggregating the adjusted set of specific answers based on weighting; and returning the adjusted set of specific answers in an aggregated form to the user. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein the weighting is based on a question weighting specific to each question in the first set of specific questions. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the set of specific answers comprise evidence references. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the information handling system supports open-domain questions. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying the general question as abstract; and determining the first set of specific questions based on selecting elements from a taxonomy hierarchy. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein identifying the general question as abstract comprises: utilizing a predefined resource to determine an abstraction score for each relevant word in the general question; determining a single abstraction score for the general question based on the abstraction scores for each relevant word in the general question; and comparing the abstraction score to a configurable threshold that indicates abstraction. ### Claim 8 A computer program product for answering general questions in an information handling system capable of answering questions, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor to cause the processor to: receive a general question by a user; run a first set of specific questions to obtain a set of specific answers to answer the general question; and return at least one answer from the set of specific answers to the general question to the user. ### Claim 9 (depends on 8) The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the program instructions further cause the processor to: provide a user interface (UI) allowing the user to adjust the first set of specific questions to generate an adjusted set of specific questions; run the adjusted set of specific questions to obtain an adjusted set of specific answers; aggregate the adjusted set of specific answers based on weighting; and return the adjusted set of specific answers in an aggregated form to the user. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) The computer program product of claim 9, wherein the weighting is based on a question weighting specific to each question in the first set of specific questions. ### Claim 11 (depends on 8) The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the set of specific answers comprise evidence references. ### Claim 12 (depends on 8) The computer program product of claim 8, wherein the program instructions further cause the processor to: identify the general question as abstract; and determine the first set of specific questions based on selecting elements from a taxonomy hierarchy. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The computer program product of claim 12, wherein identifying the general question as abstract comprises: utilizing a predefined resource to determine an abstraction score for each relevant word in the general question; determining a single abstraction score for the general question based on the abstraction scores for each relevant word in the general question; and comparing the abstraction score to a configurable threshold that indicates abstraction. ### Claim 14 A system for answering general questions, the system comprising: a memory comprising executable instructions; and a processor configured to execute the executable instructions causing the processor to: receive a general question by a user; run a first set of specific questions to obtain a set of specific answers to answer the general question; and return at least one answer from the set of specific answers to the general question to the user. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions further cause the processor to: provide a user interface (UI) allowing the user to adjust the first set of specific questions to generate an adjusted set of specific questions; run the adjusted set of specific questions to obtain an adjusted set of specific answers; aggregate the adjusted set of specific answers based on weighting; and return the adjusted set of specific answers in an aggregated form to the user. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The system of claim 15, wherein the weighting is based on a question weighting specific to each question in the first set of specific questions. ### Claim 17 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the set of specific answers comprise evidence references. ### Claim 18 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the system supports open-domain questions. ### Claim 19 (depends on 14) The system of claim 14, wherein the executable instructions further cause the processor to: identify the general question as abstract; and determine the first set of specific questions based on selecting elements from a taxonomy hierarchy. ### Claim 20 (depends on 19) The system of claim 19, wherein identifying the general question as abstract comprises: utilizing a predefined resource to determine an abstraction score for each relevant word in the general question; determining a single abstraction score for the general question based on the abstraction scores for each relevant word in the general question; and comparing the abstraction score to a configurable threshold that indicates abstraction.