Related papers: An Empirical Study of Clarifying Question-Based Sy…
Conversational search systems increasingly employ clarifying questions to refine user queries and improve the search experience. Previous studies have demonstrated the usefulness of text-based clarifying questions in enhancing both…
The ability to understand a user's underlying needs is critical for conversational systems, especially with limited input from users in a conversation. Thus, in such a domain, Asking Clarification Questions (ACQs) to reveal users' true…
The rise of large language models has opened new avenues for users seeking legal advice. However, users often lack professional legal knowledge, which can lead to questions that omit critical information. This deficiency makes it…
A large-scale conversational agent can suffer from understanding user utterances with various ambiguities such as ASR ambiguity, intent ambiguity, and hypothesis ambiguity. When ambiguities are detected, the agent should engage in a…
Most research on question answering focuses on the pre-deployment stage; i.e., building an accurate model for deployment. In this paper, we ask the question: Can we improve QA systems further \emph{post-}deployment based on user…
Humans often specify tasks incompletely, so assistants must know when and how to ask clarifying questions. However, effective clarification remains challenging in software engineering tasks as not all missing information is equally…
Despite recent progress on conversational systems, they still do not perform smoothly and coherently when faced with ambiguous requests. When questions are unclear, conversational systems should have the ability to ask clarifying questions,…
Recommender systems have become a ubiquitous part of modern web applications. They help users discover new and relevant items. Today's users, through years of interaction with these systems have developed an inherent understanding of how…
Product review websites provide an incredible lens into the wide variety of opinions and experiences of different people, and play a critical role in helping users discover products that match their personal needs and preferences. To help…
To improve online search results, clarification questions can be used to elucidate the information need of the user. This research aims to predict the user engagement with the clarification pane as an indicator of relevance based on the…
We deal with the scenario of conversational search, where user queries are under-specified or ambiguous. This calls for a mixed-initiative setup. User-asks (queries) and system-answers, as well as system-asks (clarification questions) and…
Recommender systems often struggle to strike a balance between matching users' tastes and providing unexpected recommendations. When recommendations are too narrow and fail to cover the full range of users' preferences, the system is…
Information access systems, such as search engines, recommender systems, and conversational assistants, have become integral to our daily lives as they help us satisfy our information needs. However, evaluating the effectiveness of these…
Recent research on conversational search highlights the importance of mixed-initiative in conversations. To enable mixed-initiative, the system should be able to ask clarifying questions to the user. However, the ability of the underlying…
We conducted a qualitative user study with 77 consumers to investigate what social aspects are relevant when supporting customers during their shopping activities and particularly in situations when they are undecided. Twenty-five…
Recommender systems are software applications that help users find items of interest in situations of information overload in a personalized way, using knowledge about the needs and preferences of individual users. In conversational…
Clarifying the underlying user information need by asking clarifying questions is an important feature of modern conversational search system. However, evaluation of such systems through answering prompted clarifying questions requires…
Inquiry is fundamental to communication, and machines cannot effectively collaborate with humans unless they can ask questions. In this work, we build a neural network model for the task of ranking clarification questions. Our model is…
Users often need to look through multiple search result pages or reformulate queries when they have complex information-seeking needs. Conversational search systems make it possible to improve user satisfaction by asking questions to…
Automated platforms which support users in finding a mutually beneficial match, such as online dating and job recruitment sites, are becoming increasingly popular. These platforms often include recommender systems that assist users in…