Formulating a response to a natural language query based on user intent
Natural language processing is enhanced by linguistically extracting intelligence about a user. A history of user queries is analyzed by a natural language classifier to determine various user intents, and these intents are combined to form a user intent profile. The profile includes elements of sentiment, emotion and tone. The profile can be used in various ways including restricting access to documents in a collection, or refining a cognitive analysis of a query. For access restriction, a determination is made that the user intent is inconsistent with a document, and the user is denied access to the document. This determination involves a user intent score which is compared to a score of the document. For cognitive analysis, searching of reference documents is filtered by excluding documents based on the user intent. The searching includes a comparison of meta-data tags of the documents to the user intent.
1. A method of responding to a natural language query comprising:
receiving the natural language query from a user in computer readable form, by executing first instructions in a computer system;
receiving a user profile associated with the user, the user profile having an indication of user intent which includes one or more of sentiment, emotion and tone, by executing second instructions in the computer system;
performing cognitive analysis on the natural language query based on the user intent using a reference collection having one or more documents to yield a response to the query, by executing third instructions in the computer system; and
presenting the response to the user, by executing fourth instructions in the computer system.
2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
using a natural language classifier to determine a current user intent from the natural language query; and
updating the user profile with the current user intent.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the user profile is a default profile having a predetermined set of intents.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the cognitive analysis includes searching a subset of the documents, the subset excluding at least one of the documents based on the user intent.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein said searching includes a comparison of one or more meta-data tags of the documents to the user intent.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the user intent is further based in part on a scope of responsibilities of the user.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the user profile includes multiple intent elements including at least one sentiment element, at least one emotion element and at least one tone element.
8. A computer system comprising:
one or more processors which process program instructions;
a memory device connected to said one or more processors; and
program instructions residing in said memory device for responding to a natural language query by receiving the natural language query from a user in computer readable form, receiving a user profile associated with the user wherein the user profile has an indication of user intent which includes one or more of sentiment, emotion and tone, performing cognitive analysis on the natural language query based on the user intent using a reference collection having one or more documents to yield a response to the query, and presenting the response to the user.
9. The computer system of claim 8 wherein said program instructions further use a natural language classifier to determine a current user intent from the natural language query, and update the user profile with the current user intent.
10. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the user profile is a default profile having a predetermined set of intents.
11. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the cognitive analysis includes searching a subset of the documents, the subset excluding at least one of the documents based on the user intent.
12. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the searching includes a comparison of one or more meta-data tags of the documents to the user intent.
13. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the user intent is further based in part on a scope of responsibilities of the user.
14. The computer system of claim 8 wherein the user profile includes multiple intent elements including at least one sentiment element, at least one emotion element and at least one tone element.
15. A computer program product comprising:
a computer readable storage medium; and
program instructions residing in said storage medium for responding to a natural language query by receiving the natural language query from a user in computer readable form, receiving a user profile associated with the user wherein the user profile has an indication of user intent which includes one or more of sentiment, emotion and tone, performing cognitive analysis on the natural language query based on the user intent using a reference collection having one or more documents to yield a response to the query, and presenting the response to the user.
16. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein said program instructions further use a natural language classifier to determine a current user intent from the natural language query, and update the user profile with the current user intent.
17. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the user profile is a default profile having a predetermined set of intents.
18. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the cognitive analysis includes searching a subset of the documents, the subset excluding at least one of the documents based on the user intent.
19. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the searching includes a comparison of one or more meta-data tags of the documents to the user intent.
20. The computer program product of claim 15 wherein the user intent is further based in part on a scope of responsibilities of the user.