Walmart Inc.
METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR RETRIEVING RELEVANT INFORMATION FROM AN UNSTRUCTURED KNOWLEDGE BASE

Abstract:

The disclosed subject matter relates to a system and method for retrieving relevant information in response to a user query without devising intent of the query. The relevant information is contained within a semi-structured database which was populated from Q&A pairs, help web sites, product descriptions and other information from an organizations knowledge base and from which an inverted index is created. The semi-structured data base may be created automatically or entered manually. Upon receiving a user query, data segments are identified (and ranked) via the inverse index and the data segment most similar to the query is provided to a MRC model which reads the segments to determine the portion (span/snippet) of the data segment that addresses the query. This portion is provided to the user in response to the query.