Patents by Inventor Robert L. Yates
Robert L. Yates has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
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Patent number: 11568856Abstract: A combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms is applied, using a selected set of labeled conversational logs retrieved from a subset of a plurality of conversational logs, to a remaining corpus of the plurality of conversational logs to train an automated response system according to an intent associated with each of the conversational logs. The combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms may include defining the labels by a user for the selected set of the subset of the plurality of conversational logs; training a probabilistic classifier using the defined labels of features of the selected set, wherein the probabilistic classifier produces labeling decisions for the subset of conversational logs; weighting the features of the selected set in a model optimization process; and/or training an additional classifier using the weighted features of the selected set and applying the additional classifier to the remaining corpus.Type: GrantFiled: October 21, 2020Date of Patent: January 31, 2023Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Tin Kam Ho, Robert L. Yates, Blake McGregor, Rajendra G. Ugrani, Neil R. Mallinar, Abhishek Shah, Ayush Gupta
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Publication number: 20210035557Abstract: A combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms is applied, using a selected set of labeled conversational logs retrieved from a subset of a plurality of conversational logs, to a remaining corpus of the plurality of conversational logs to train an automated response system according to an intent associated with each of the conversational logs. The combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms may include defining the labels by a user for the selected set of the subset of the plurality of conversational logs; training a probabilistic classifier using the defined labels of features of the selected set, wherein the probabilistic classifier produces labeling decisions for the subset of conversational logs; weighting the features of the selected set in a model optimization process; and/or training an additional classifier using the weighted features of the selected set and applying the additional classifier to the remaining corpus.Type: ApplicationFiled: October 21, 2020Publication date: February 4, 2021Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Tin Kam HO, Robert L. YATES, Blake MCGREGOR, Rajendra G. UGRANI, Neil R. MALLINAR, Abhishek SHAH, Ayush GUPTA
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Patent number: 10885281Abstract: A mechanism is provided to implement a summarization mechanism for summarizing an identified natural language document using hyperbolic embeddings. Responsive to receiving a query from a user for a summarization of the identified natural language document, the summarization mechanism produces a hyperbolic embedding model of embeddings of the query. The summarization mechanism compares the embeddings of the query to each of a set of embeddings associated with a set of sentences of the identified natural language document. Responsive to identifying a subset of embeddings associated with the set of sentences of the identified natural language document having a semantic specificity to a subset of embeddings associated with the query, the summarization mechanism adds the sentence to a summary of the identified natural language document. The summarization mechanism then outputs the summary to the user.Type: GrantFiled: December 6, 2018Date of Patent: January 5, 2021Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Anastas Stoyanovsky, Steven M. Pritko, Robert L. Yates, Angela Swindell, Adilakshmi Veerubhotla
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Patent number: 10885082Abstract: A method overfits a word vector generating process to identify implicit relationships between two or more terms in a corpus. A server identifies instances of multiple user-generated pairs of terms in an original corpus of documents, in which the terms are labeled but a relationship between two or more of the corpus terms are not identified. The server then extracts sentences, from the original corpus of documents, that contain one or more of the multiple user-generated pairs of terms, and combines the sentences into a training corpus, which is used to purposely overfit a word embedding model. This word embedding model leads to a vector that is used to identify other terms that have a same type of relationship as that found in the multiple user-generated pairs of terms, such that search corpus of documents can be searched for similar terms that trained the word embedding model.Type: GrantFiled: March 22, 2018Date of Patent: January 5, 2021Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Anastas Stoyanovsky, Roxana Gheorghiu, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 10832659Abstract: Embodiments for training an automated response system using weak supervision and co-training in a computing environment are provided. A plurality of conversational logs comprising interactive dialog sessions between agents and clients for a given product or service are received. A subset of the plurality of conversational logs are retrieved according to a defined criterion, and a selected set of the subset of the plurality of retrieved conversational logs are labeled by a user. The labeling is associated with a semantic scope of intent considered by the clients. A combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms using the selected set of labeled conversational logs are applied to a remaining corpus of the plurality of conversational logs to train the automated response system according to the semantic scope of intent.Type: GrantFiled: August 31, 2018Date of Patent: November 10, 2020Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Tin Kam Ho, Robert L. Yates, Blake McGregor, Rajendra G. Ugrani, Neil R. Mallinar, Abhishek Shah, Ayush Gupta
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Patent number: 10769552Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for generating an answer to an input question. An input question is received and a set of candidate answers is generated along with, for each candidate answer in the set of candidate answers, a corresponding selection of one or more selected evidence portions from a corpus of information providing evidence in support of the candidate answer being a correct answer for the input question. The candidate answers are ranked based on an application of a justifying passage model (JPM) to the selected evidence portions for each of the candidate answers in the set of candidate answers. The JPM identifies whether a candidate answer is justified by a selected evidence passage corresponding to the candidate answer. A candidate answer is output as the correct answer for the input question based on the ranking of the candidate answers.Type: GrantFiled: January 31, 2017Date of Patent: September 8, 2020Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Bridget B. Beamon, Michael D. Whitley, Robert L. Yates
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Publication number: 20200184012Abstract: A mechanism is provided to implement a summarization mechanism for summarizing an identified natural language document using hyperbolic embeddings. Responsive to receiving a query from a user for a summarization of the identified natural language document, the summarization mechanism produces a hyperbolic embedding model of embeddings of the query. The summarization mechanism compares the embeddings of the query to each of a set of embeddings associated with a set of sentences of the identified natural language document. Responsive to identifying a subset of embeddings associated with the set of sentences of the identified natural language document having a semantic specificity to a subset of embeddings associated with the query, the summarization mechanism adds the sentence to a summary of the identified natural language document. The summarization mechanism then outputs the summary to the user.Type: ApplicationFiled: December 6, 2018Publication date: June 11, 2020Inventors: Anastas Stoyanovsky, Steven M. Pritko, Robert L. Yates, Angela Swindell, Adilakshmi Veerubhotla
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Publication number: 20200074984Abstract: Embodiments for training an automated response system using weak supervision and co-training in a computing environment are provided. A plurality of conversational logs comprising interactive dialog sessions between agents and clients for a given product or service are received. A subset of the plurality of conversational logs are retrieved according to a defined criterion, and a selected set of the subset of the plurality of retrieved conversational logs are labeled by a user. The labeling is associated with a semantic scope of intent considered by the clients. A combination of propagation operations and learning algorithms using the selected set of labeled conversational logs are applied to a remaining corpus of the plurality of conversational logs to train the automated response system according to the semantic scope of intent.Type: ApplicationFiled: August 31, 2018Publication date: March 5, 2020Applicant: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Tin Kam HO, Robert L. YATES, Blake MCGREGOR, Rajendra G. UGRANI, Neil R. MALLINAR, Abhishek SHAH, Ayush GUPTA
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Publication number: 20190294695Abstract: A method overfits a word vector generating process to identify implicit relationships between two or more terms in a corpus. A server identifies instances of multiple user-generated pairs of terms in an original corpus of documents, in which the terms are labeled but a relationship between two or more of the corpus terms are not identified. The server then extracts sentences, from the original corpus of documents, that contain one or more of the multiple user-generated pairs of terms, and combines the sentences into a training corpus, which is used to purposely overfit a word embedding model. This word embedding model leads to a vector that is used to identify other terms that have a same type of relationship as that found in the multiple user-generated pairs of terms, such that search corpus of documents can be searched for similar terms that trained the word embedding model.Type: ApplicationFiled: March 22, 2018Publication date: September 26, 2019Inventors: ANASTAS STOYANOVSKY, ROXANA GHEORGHIU, ROBERT L. YATES
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Patent number: 9734238Abstract: According to an aspect, a question answering computer system determines a set of search terms for a given question. A plurality of passages that each includes at least one search term in the set of search terms is identified in response to a search of a document for search terms in the set of search terms. A passage from the plurality of passages is selected. A context based score of the selected passage that indicates the likelihood that the selected passage contains an answer to the question is generated based on criteria that specify a relationship among the set of search terms, content of the passage, and content of at least one other passage in the plurality of passages.Type: GrantFiled: November 11, 2016Date of Patent: August 15, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Christopher M. Nolan, William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Publication number: 20170140304Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for generating an answer to an input question. An input question is received and a set of candidate answers is generated along with, for each candidate answer in the set of candidate answers, a corresponding selection of one or more selected evidence portions from a corpus of information providing evidence in support of the candidate answer being a correct answer for the input question. The candidate answers are ranked based on an application of a justifying passage model (JPM) to the selected evidence portions for each of the candidate answers in the set of candidate answers. The JPM identifies whether a candidate answer is justified by a selected evidence passage corresponding to the candidate answer. A candidate answer is output as the correct answer for the input question based on the ranking of the candidate answers.Type: ApplicationFiled: January 31, 2017Publication date: May 18, 2017Inventors: Bridget B. Beamon, Michael D. Whitley, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9621601Abstract: Mechanisms are provided, in association with a question and answer system, for generating answers to an input question. An input question is received and processed to generate at least one query. The at least one query is applied to the corpus to generate a set of candidate answers and corresponding selections of evidence portions of the corpus of information providing evidence in support of the at least one candidate answer being a correct answer for the input question. A graphical user interface (GUI) is output comprising a first GUI sub-section comprising the set of candidate answers, and a second GUI sub-section comprising the evidence portions of the corpus. User input modifying at least one of set of candidate answers or the evidence portions of the corpus of information is received via the GUI and an operation of the data processing system is adjusted based on the user input.Type: GrantFiled: March 29, 2013Date of Patent: April 11, 2017Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Robert C. Johnson, Jr., Scott M. Lewis, Michael D. Whitley, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9613133Abstract: According to an aspect, a question answering computer system determines a set of search terms for a given question. A plurality of passages that each includes at least one search term in the set of search terms is identified in response to a search of a document for search terms in the set of search terms. A passage from the plurality of passages is selected. A context based score of the selected passage that indicates the likelihood that the selected passage contains an answer to the question is generated based on criteria that specify a relationship among the set of search terms, content of the passage, and content of at least one other passage in the plurality of passages.Type: GrantFiled: November 7, 2014Date of Patent: April 4, 2017Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Christopher M. Nolan, William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9613317Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for generating an answer to an input question. An input question is received and a set of candidate answers is generated along with, for each candidate answer in the set of candidate answers, a corresponding selection of one or more selected evidence portions from a corpus of information providing evidence in support of the candidate answer being a correct answer for the input question. The candidate answers are ranked based on an application of a justifying passage model (JPM) to the selected evidence portions for each of the candidate answers in the set of candidate answers. The JPM identifies whether a candidate answer is justified by a selected evidence passage corresponding to the candidate answer. A candidate answer is output as the correct answer for the input question based on the ranking of the candidate answers.Type: GrantFiled: March 28, 2014Date of Patent: April 4, 2017Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Bridget B. Beamon, Michael D. Whitley, Robert L. Yates
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Publication number: 20170068726Abstract: According to an aspect, a question answering computer system determines a set of search terms for a given question. A plurality of passages that each includes at least one search term in the set of search terms is identified in response to a search of a document for search terms in the set of search terms. A passage from the plurality of passages is selected. A context based score of the selected passage that indicates the likelihood that the selected passage contains an answer to the question is generated based on criteria that specify a relationship among the set of search terms, content of the passage, and content of at least one other passage in the plurality of passages.Type: ApplicationFiled: November 11, 2016Publication date: March 9, 2017Inventors: Christopher M. Nolan, William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9558264Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for identifying commonalities between candidate answers generated by a Question and Answer (QA) system in response to an input question. The mechanisms receive a plurality of candidate answers for an input question from the QA system and identify terms present in the candidate answers. The mechanisms determine relationships between terms in each of the candidate answers and determine a common relationship between a first term and a second term, the common relationship being common amongst at least a subset of the plurality of candidate answers, based on the determined relationships between terms in each of the candidate answers. The mechanisms present the plurality of candidate answers and the common relationship to a user.Type: GrantFiled: February 15, 2016Date of Patent: January 31, 2017Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9558263Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for identifying commonalities between candidate answers generated by a Question and Answer (QA) system in response to an input question. The mechanisms receive a plurality of candidate answers for an input question from the QA system and identify terms present in the candidate answers. The mechanisms determine relationships between terms in each of the candidate answers and determine a common relationship between a first term and a second term, the common relationship being common amongst at least a subset of the plurality of candidate answers, based on the determined relationships between terms in each of the candidate answers. The mechanisms present the plurality of candidate answers and the common relationship to a user.Type: GrantFiled: December 5, 2013Date of Patent: January 31, 2017Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9560080Abstract: An information sharing paradigm for a cloud computing solution enables flexible organizational boundaries with respect to cloud resources. Cloud service customers manage their own organization boundary but can extend that boundary selectively by associating cloud resources they own with sets of domain names that may be associated with requests for cloud resources that the organization may be willing to share with other organizations that are using the cloud environment, and by ensuring that any such requests for resources that are shared in this manner are associated with one or more message handling policies that have been defined by (or otherwise associated with) the resource-owning organization. Cloud resources owned by an organization (even those marked as “internal only”) may be selectively shared with one or more other organizations using the cloud environment depending on the domain names associated with the requests. Message handling policies are enforced with respect to shared resources.Type: GrantFiled: December 15, 2015Date of Patent: January 31, 2017Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Mustansir Banatwala, Harold Moss, III, Robert L. Yates, Mary E. Zurko
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Patent number: 9529894Abstract: According to an aspect, a question answering computer system determines a set of search terms for a given question. A plurality of passages that each includes at least one search term in the set of search terms is identified in response to a search of a document for search terms in the set of search terms. A passage from the plurality of passages is selected. A context based score of the selected passage that indicates the likelihood that the selected passage contains an answer to the question is generated based on criteria that specify a relationship among the set of search terms, content of the passage, and content of at least one other passage in the plurality of passages.Type: GrantFiled: February 16, 2016Date of Patent: December 27, 2016Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Christopher M. Nolan, William G. Visotski, David E. Wilson, Robert L. Yates
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Patent number: 9515950Abstract: Mechanisms are provided for enabling collaboration across tenants in a multi-tenant environment using single sign-on (SSO) authentication/authorization. Various examples provide for creating a user account and provisioning a subscription to a user (e.g., to enable single sign-on authentication/authorization). The user is allowed to access services (e.g., collaborative services) in a multi-tenant environment by utilizing a subscription authorization of the user without prompting the user to authenticate by logging-in again (that is, without prompting the user to log-in again after the user has already logged-in and been authenticated for a given session). Other examples provide for mapping webspaces through URL hosts where each organization (that is, tenant) has its own set of namespace(s).Type: GrantFiled: November 14, 2013Date of Patent: December 6, 2016Assignee: International Business Machines CorporationInventors: Mustansir Banatwala, David A. Brooks, Patrick Y. Lin, Thomas Schaeck, Robert L. Yates