Abstract: Disclosed is a method and system for automatically generating question and query pair from a knowledge base that involves accessing a knowledge base to extract one or more entities and one or more predicates, generating a baseline question template from a context free grammar rule, inputting the one or more entities and the one or more predicates into the baseline question template to generate a numbered question template, generating a typed question template by traversing the numbered question template through a predicate type-graph, generating a SPARQL query by inputting the one or more entities and the one or more predicates into a SPARQL query template, generating a question by inputting the one or more entities and the one or more predicates into the typed question template, and constructing a question and query pair by combining the question and the SPARQL query.

Abstract: A virtual assistant system comprising an interface configured to receive user input and provide a response to the user and a processor configured to run machine executable code. A memory storing non-transitory machine executable code configured to process the user input to generate two or more primary interpretations and one or more secondary interpretations based on one or more of the two or more primary interpretations. The code is also configured to process the primary interpretations and alternative interpretations to generate results which lead to two or more terminal states and then score the two or more terminal states to rank the two or more terminal states such that a top ranked terminal state is the top result, which is presented to the user. A transceiver may communicate over a network to a second device configured to assist the virtual assistant system in generating the top result for the user.