IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,536,385
Granted Patent B2
US 12,536,385 · App. 17/971,241 · Granted Jan 27, 2026

Systems and methods for a reading and comprehension assistance tool

Inventors: Philippe Laban (New York, NY); Chien-Sheng (Jason) Wu (Mountain View, CA)
Assignee: Salesforce, Inc.
G06F40/40G06F3/04817G06F16/3329G06F40/35G06N3/04G06N3/084G06F40/30
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,536,385
App. No.
17/971,241
Filed
Oct 21, 2022
Granted
Jan 27, 2026
Kind
B2
Art Unit
2654
USPC
704/9
Abstract

Embodiments described herein provide a method and system for generating a reading interface for a user. The method includes receiving a first text passage from a first data source and a second text passage from a second data source. The method also includes generating a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages. The method further includes generating a first answer to the candidate question and a second answer to the candidate question. The method further includes determining that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question when the first answer and the second answer are both available and exhibit semantic diversity. The method further includes constructing a reading interface comprising a first component displaying the discord question and one or more user-engageable components each displaying the first or the second answer and linking to the first or the second data source, respectively.

Claims (66)

1 . A system for generating a reading interface for a user, the system comprising:

a data interface that receives a first text passage from a first data source and a second text passage from a second data source;

a memory storing a question generation model, a question answering model and an answer consolidation model that are implemented on one or more neural networks, and a plurality of processor-executable instructions for operating the models; and

a processor executing instructions to perform operations comprising:

generating, by the question generation model, a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages;

generating, by the question answering model, a first answer to the candidate question conditioned on the first text passage and a second answer to the candidate question conditioned on the second text passage;

determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question when the first answer and the second answer are both available and exhibit semantic diversity; and

constructing a reading interface comprising a first component displaying the discord question and one or more user-engageable components each displaying the first or the second answer and linking to the first or the second data source, respectively; and a hardware user interface that presents the reading interface to a user.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the operations further comprise:

generating, by the question answering model, a plurality of answers to the candidate question based on relevant text passages, respectively; and

determining, by the answer consolidation model, a first semantic group of semantically similar answers and a second semantic group of semantically similar answers,

wherein a similarity score between two of the semantically similar answers in a same semantic group is higher than a threshold score.

3 . The system of claim 2 , wherein an operation of determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that each answer from the plurality of answers comprises content for more than a first pre-defined percentage of a corresponding text passage based on which each answer is generated.

4 . The system of claim 2 , wherein an operation of determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that a larger one of the first sematic group and the second semantic group contains less than or equal to a second pre-defined percentage of the plurality of answers.

5 . The system of claim 2 , wherein an operation of determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

obtaining one or more distractor text passages that are different from the first text passage or the second text passage;

generating, by the question answering model, one or more answers to the candidate question based on the one or more distractor text passages, respectively;

computing a question specificity score based on a number of available answers generated from distractor text passages and a number of the plurality of answers generated from relevant text passages;

determining that the question specificity score is greater than a pre-defined threshold.

6 . The system of claim 2 , further comprising an operation of obtaining a summary text relating to the first text passage and the second text passage, wherein

generating, by the question generation model, a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages comprises generating the candidate question based on the summary text.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model are each trained separately.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first text passage and the second text passage are associated with a ground-truth question for training, and wherein the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model are jointly trained, by:

computing a training objective based on the discord question and the ground-truth question; and

jointly updating the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model in an end-to-end manner based on the training objective via backpropagation.

9 . A method for generating a reading interface for a user, the method comprising:

receiving, via a communication interface, a first text passage from a first data source and a second text passage from a second data source;

generating, by the question generation model, a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages;

generating, by the question answering model, a first answer to the candidate question conditioned on the first text passage and a second answer to the candidate question conditioned on the second text passage;

determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question when the first answer and the second answer are both available and exhibit semantic diversity; and

constructing a reading interface comprising a first component displaying the discord question and one or more user-engageable components each displaying the first or the second answer and linking to the first or the second data source, respectively.

10 . The method of claim 9 , further comprise:

generating, by the question answering model, a plurality of answers to the candidate question based on relevant text passages, respectively; and

determining, by the answer consolidation model, a first semantic group of semantically similar answers and a second semantic group of semantically similar answers,

wherein a similarity score between two of the semantically similar answers in a same semantic group is higher than a threshold score.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that each answer from the plurality of answers comprises content for more than a first pre-defined percentage of a corresponding text passage based on which each answer is generated.

12 . The method of claim 10 , wherein determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that a larger one of the first sematic group and the second semantic group contains less than or equal to a second pre-defined percentage of the plurality of answers.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

obtaining one or more distractor text passages that are different from the first text passage or the second text passage;

generating, by the question answering model, one or more answers to the candidate question based on the one or more distractor text passages, respectively;

computing a question specificity score based on a number of available answers generated from distractor text passages and a number of the plurality of answers generated from relevant text passages;

determining that the question specificity score is greater than a pre-defined threshold.

14 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising obtaining a summary text relating to the first text passage and the second text passage, wherein

generating, by the question generation model, a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages comprises generating the candidate question based on the summary text.

15 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model are each trained separately.

16 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first text passage and the second text passage are associated with a ground-truth question for training, and wherein the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model are jointly trained, by:

computing a training objective based on the discord question and the ground-truth question; and

jointly updating the question generation model, the question answering model, and the answer consolidation model in an end-to-end manner based on the training objective via backpropagation.

17 . A non-transitory processor-readable storage medium storing a plurality of processor-executable instructions for code program synthesis for a target problem, the instructions being executed by one or more hardware processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving, via a communication interface, a first text passage from a first data source and a second text passage from a second data source;

generating, by the question generation model, a candidate question relating to contents of the first and the second text passages;

generating, by the question answering model, a first answer to the candidate question conditioned on the first text passage and a second answer to the candidate question conditioned on the second text passage;

determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question when the first answer and the second answer are both available and exhibit semantic diversity; and

constructing a reading interface comprising a first component displaying the discord question and one or more user-engageable components each displaying the first or the second answer and linking to the first or the second data source, respectively.

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

generating, by the question answering model, a plurality of answers to the candidate question based on relevant text passages, respectively; and

determining, by the answer consolidation model, a first semantic group of semantically similar answers and a second semantic group of semantically similar answers,

wherein a similarity score between two of the semantically similar answers in a same semantic group is higher than a threshold score.

19 . The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that each answer from the plurality of answers comprises content for more than a first pre-defined percentage of a corresponding text passage based on which each answer is generated.

20 . The non-transitory processor-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein determining, by the answer consolidation model, that the candidate question qualifies as a discord question comprises:

determining that a larger one of the first sematic group and the second semantic group contains less than or equal to a second pre-defined percentage of the plurality of answers.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Oct 26, 2022
From: LABAN, PHILIPPE; WU, CHIEN-SHENG
To: SALESFORCE, INC.
Reel/Frame 061550/0656 →
Continuity (3)
Provisional Application 63393732 · Jul 29, 2022
Provisional Application 63355420 · Jun 24, 2022
Related Publication 20230419048A1 · Dec 28, 2023
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