An Architecture for Opportunistic Text Generation

Chris Mellish, Mick O'Donnell
Department of Artificial Intelligence, University of Edinburgh
80 South Bridge, Edinburgh EH1 1HN
Email: {chrism,micko}@dai.ed.ac.uk - Jon Oberlander, Alistair Knott
Human communication Research Centre, University of Edinburgh
2 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LW
Email: {alik,jon}@cogsci.ed.ac.uk

Abstract:

In this paper we describe the architecture of the ILEX system, which supports opportunistic text generation. In web-based text generation, the system cannot plan the entire multi-page discourse because the user's browsing path is unpredictable. For this reason, the system must be ready opportunistically to take advantage of whatever path the user chooses. We describe both the nature of opportunism in ILEX's museum domain, and then show how ILEX has been designed to function in this environment. The architecture presented addresses opportunism in both content determination and sentence planning.

Mick O'Donnell
Mon Feb 9 14:09:51 GMT 1998