Beyond Question-Answering.

Abstract : We demonstrate, using protocols of actual interactions with a question-answering system, that users of these systems expect to engage in a conversation whose coherence is manifested in the interpendence of their (often unstated) plans and goals with those of the system. Since these problems are even more obvious in other forms of natural-language understanding systems, such as task-oriented dialogue systems, techniques for engaging in question-answering conversation should be special cases of general conversational abilities. We characterize dimensions along which language understanding systems might differ and, based partly on this analysis, propose a new system architecture, centered around recognizing the user's plans and planning helpful responses, which can be applied to a number of possible application areas. To illustrate progress to date, we discuss two implemented systems, one operating in a simple question-answering framework, and the other in a decision support framework for which both graphic and linguistic means of communication are available. (Author)

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