Natural Language Processing and Candidate Response Identification

A computer program product for identifying and evaluating candidate passages responses, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a processor to:

• apply natural language processing (NLP) to analyze a passage in natural language form, including subject the passage to analysis against one or more input tokens, and identify content within the passage matching the one or more input tokens;
• generate a structure representing a mapping of matching content between the analyzed passage and a focus of the one or more input tokens, an entry in the structure including the focus and a candidate answer from the passage;
• identify alignment of the one or more input tokens and matching one or more passage tokens within the generated structure;
• leverage the generated structure and the identified alignment and iteratively associate a mapping of one or more input tokens in the passage as an index representation, including determine a first count of matching token entries qualified by a closeness criteria and a second count of evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• calculate an alignment of the passage to a candidate question represented by the one or more input tokens, including the director to assess a ratio as a confidence value;
• and
• data from the passage qualified by the one or more input tokens is returned with the confidence value.

A computer system comprising:

• a processing unit operatively coupled to memory;
• an artificial intelligence (AI) platform in communication with the processing unit, the AI platform to identify and evaluate candidate passage responses, including
• a natural language (NL) manager to apply natural language processing (NLP) to analyze a passage in natural language form, including the NL manager to subject the passage to analysis against one or more input tokens, and identify content within the passage matching the one or more input tokens;
• a structure manager operatively coupled to the NL manager, the structure manager to generate a structure representing a mapping of matching content between the analyzed passage and a focus of the one or more input tokens, an entry in the structure including the focus and a candidate answer from the passage;
• a token manager operatively coupled to the structure manager, the token manager to identify alignment of the one or more input tokens and matching one or more passage tokens within the generated structure;
• the token manager to leverage the generated structure and the identified alignment and iteratively associate a mapping of one or more input tokens in the passage as an index representation, including determine a first count of matching token entries qualified by a closeness criteria and a second count of evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• a director to calculate an alignment of the passage to a candidate question represented by the one or more input tokens, including the director to assess a ratio as a confidence value;
• and
• data from the passage qualified by the one or more input tokens is returned with the confidence value.

A computer implemented method comprising:

• analyzing a passage in natural language form, including identifying one or more passage tokens matching one or more input tokens;
• representing a mapping of matching content between the analyzed passage and a focus of the one or more input tokens, an entry in the mapping including the focus and a candidate from the passage;
• identifying alignment of the one or more input tokens and matching the one or more passage tokens within a generated structure;
• iteratively associating a mapping of the one or more input tokens in the passage as an index representation, including determining a first count of matching token entries qualified by a closeness criteria and a second count of evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• calculating a ratio of matching token entries qualified by the closeness criteria and the evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• and
• data from the passage qualified by the one or more input tokens is returned with the calculated ratio.

A computer program product for identifying and evaluating candidate passages responses, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program code executable by a processor to:

• analyze a passage in natural language form, including identifying one or more passage tokens matching one or more input tokens;
• represent a mapping of matching content between the analyzed passage and a focus of the one or more input tokens, an entry in the mapping including the focus and a candidate from the passage;
• identify alignment of the one or more input tokens and matching the one or more passage tokens within a generated structure;
• iteratively associate a mapping of one or more input tokens in the passage as an index representation, including determining a first count of matching token entries qualified by a closeness criteria and a second count of evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• calculate a ratio of matching token entries qualified by the closeness criteria and the evaluated token entries qualified by the closeness criteria;
• and
• data from the passage qualified by the one or more input tokens is returned with the calculated ratio.