IP Library › Granted Patent US 11,386,274
Granted Patent B2
US 11,386,274 · App. 16/822,563 · Granted Jul 12, 2022

Using communicative discourse trees to detect distributed incompetence

Inventor: Boris Galitsky (San Jose, CA)
Assignee: Oracle International Corporation
G06F40/35G06F40/253G06F40/289
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 11,386,274
App. No.
16/822,563
Filed
Mar 18, 2020
Granted
Jul 12, 2022
Kind
B2
Art Unit
2657
USPC
704/9
Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for detecting distributed incompetence in text of a conversation using communicative discourse trees and then inserting an automatic response from an autonomous agent (chatbot) or other entity. For example, a computing system generates a communicative discourse tree from utterances from multiple agents to a user. The computing system obtains a prediction of whether the text includes distributed incompetence by applying a trained predictive model to the communicative discourse tree. Based on the detection, the computing system generates an updated response to a user device.

Claims (69)

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a presence of distributed incompetence by analyzing a communicative discourse tree, the method comprising:

accessing a body of text comprising fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit;

generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the fragments;

matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature;

building a communicative discourse tree by augmenting the fragments in the discourse tree with the respective matched verb signatures;

computing a probability of a presence of distributed incompetence in the body of text by applying a predictive model to the communicative discourse tree, wherein the predictive model is trained to detect a level of distributed incompetence;

identifying the body of text as containing distributed incompetence responsive to determining that the probability is past a threshold;

generating a response based on the identification of distributed incompetence; and

inserting the generated response into a conversation associated with the body of text.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that identifies a first entity as a first actor and a second entity as a first recipient of the first communicative action; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that identifies the second entity as a second actor and the first entity as a second recipient of the second communicative action.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that attributes an entity to a first entity, wherein the first communicative action is associated with an attribution rhetorical relation; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that attributes the entity to a second actor.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that is of class “deny” and identifies a first actor.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the matching comprises:

accessing verb signatures, wherein each verb signature comprises the verb of a respective fragment and a sequence of thematic roles, wherein thematic roles describe a relationship between the verb and related words;

determining, for each verb signature, a plurality of thematic roles of the respective signature that matches a role of a word in the respective fragment;

selecting a particular verb signature from the plurality of verb signatures based on the particular verb signature comprising a highest number of matches; and

associating the particular verb signature with the fragment.

6. The method of claim 4 , wherein the associating further comprises:

identifying each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature; and

matching, for each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature, a corresponding word in the respective fragment to the thematic role.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the verb is a communicative verb.

8. A system comprising:

a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable program instructions; and

a processing device communicatively coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium for executing the computer-executable program instructions, wherein executing the computer-executable program instructions configures the processing device to perform operations comprising:

accessing a body of text comprising fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit;

generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the fragments;

matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature;

building a communicative discourse tree by augmenting the fragments in the discourse tree with the respective matched verb signatures;

computing a probability of a presence of distributed incompetence in the body of text by applying a predictive model to the communicative discourse tree, wherein the predictive model is trained to detect a level of distributed incompetence;

identifying the body of text as containing distributed incompetence responsive to determining that the probability is past a threshold; and

generating a response based on the identification of distributed incompetence and inserting the generated response into a conversation associated with the body of text.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that identifies a first entity as a first actor and a second entity as a first recipient of the first communicative action; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that identifies the second entity as a second actor and the first entity as a second recipient of the second communicative action.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that attributes an entity to a first entity, wherein the first communicative action is associated with an attribution rhetorical relation; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that attributes the entity to a second actor.

11. The system of claim 8 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that is of class “deny” and identifies a first actor.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the associating further comprises:

identifying each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature; and

matching, for each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature, a corresponding word in the fragment to the thematic role.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the verb is a communicative verb.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein each verb signature of the verb signatures comprises one of (i) an adverb, (ii) a noun phrase, or (iii) a noun.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing computer-executable program instructions, wherein when executed by a processing device, the computer-executable program instructions cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

accessing a body of text comprising fragments, wherein at least one fragment comprises a verb and a plurality of words, each word comprising a role of the words within the fragment, wherein each fragment is an elementary discourse unit;

generating a discourse tree that represents rhetorical relationships between the fragments, wherein the discourse tree comprises a plurality of nodes, each nonterminal node representing a rhetorical relationship between two of the fragments, each terminal node of the nodes of the discourse tree is associated with one of the fragments;

matching each fragment that has a verb to a verb signature;

building a communicative discourse tree by augmenting the fragments in the discourse tree with the respective matched verb signatures;

computing a probability of a presence of distributed incompetence in the body of text by applying a predictive model to the communicative discourse tree, wherein the predictive model is trained to detect a level of distributed incompetence;

identifying the body of text as containing distributed incompetence responsive to determining that the probability is past a threshold; and

generating a response based on the identification of distributed incompetence and inserting the generated response into a conversation associated with the body of text.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that identifies a first entity as a first actor and a second entity as a first recipient of the first communicative action; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that identifies the second entity as a second actor and the first entity as a second recipient of the second communicative action.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that attributes an entity to a first entity, wherein the first communicative action is associated with an attribution rhetorical relation; and

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a second communicative action that attributes the entity to a second actor.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the operations further comprise:

identifying, via the predictive model and in the communicative discourse tree, a first communicative action that is of class “deny” and identifies a first actor.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein the associating comprises:

identifying each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature; and

matching, for each of the plurality of thematic roles in the particular verb signature, a corresponding word in the fragment to the thematic role.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the verb is a communicative verb.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Mar 20, 2020
From: GALITSKY, BORIS
To: ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 052178/0551 →
Continuity (10)
Continuation In Part 16260939 · Jan 29, 2019
Continuation In Part 16010091 · Jun 15, 2018
Continuation In Part 15975683 · May 9, 2018
Provisional Application 62892765 · Aug 28, 2019
Provisional Application 62822128 · Mar 22, 2019
Provisional Application 62646795 · Mar 22, 2018
Provisional Application 62623999 · Jan 30, 2018
Provisional Application 62520456 · Jun 15, 2017
Provisional Application 62504377 · May 10, 2017
Related Publication 20200265195A1 · Aug 20, 2020
Cited By (1)
US 12,530,531