Patent ID: 9471872
Filing Date: 2016-10-18
CPC Classification: G06N

Claim Text:
1. A method of building a runtime dialog, comprising: receiving an initial answer to an initial question from a user; creating a state of a conversation thread based on the initial answer; selecting, automatically by a processor, a next question to ask based on the state of the conversation thread from a dialog repository and a question selection policy; presenting the next question to the user; receiving a next answer to the next question; updating the state of the conversation thread based on the next answer; repeating the selecting, presenting, receiving, and updating until a criterion is satisfied; and wherein the question selection policy automatically resolves which question to ask next, responsive to finding that multiple questions are eligible to be asked at a point in a dialog, the question selection policy is specified by a dialog author and comprises one or more of a question ordering algorithm and question number algorithm which automatically resolves which question to ask next, a node of the dialog comprising an attached executable computer instruction that invokes a web service, wherein the state of the conversation thread comprises a pathway through a dialog graph of a dialog knowledgebase, created as a node of the dialog graph becomes activated and represents a live dialog performed with a user, wherein multiple pathways are created representing multiple live dialog threads in a dialog with the user, wherein the question selection policy in resolving which question to ask next from the multiple pathways kept with the user, switches between different question ordering algorithms on the multiple live dialog threads.