4 ms·
The computer has the opposite problem than humans have. It has all the information available instantly but it can't understand the question. Parsing a question
by diego 18y ago
The computer has the opposite problem than humans have. It has all the information available instantly but it can't understand the question. Parsing a question can be very quick, the problem is being sure that it was understood correctly. If it was, the answer will be known instantly and the computer should ring. If it wasn't, it shouldn't.
My guess is that the computer will ring either when it knows the answer beyond a certain confidence threshold (faster than a human being can hit a button) or not at all.
- gojomo 18y agoI suggest there may be ways to predict "this is the kind of question I can usually parse and answer" long before a confident parse-and-settled-answer could complete. Thus it could make sense to ring in before any potential answers have been formulated or ranked.
- abossy 18y agoI agree. As an example, if it is using traditional natural language parsing techniques, then it should know whether there are less than ten syntax trees or less than one thousand syntax trees by ring-in time. In this case, the former can be determined with a much higher degree of confidence. Even short phrases can have a multitude of possibilities, the canonical example being, 'Time flies like an arrow.' Of course, I have no idea how they're actually approaching this problem, but the point is, heuristics can be used in the process of question-answering to indicate enough of a confidence level for ring-in.