Towards a natural language interface for web based application programming interfaces : An analysis of state-of-the-art methods

Abstract: Natural language interfaces aim at providing seamless interaction for users to the functionality computer systems offer. Much of this functionality is accessible online through web based application programming interfaces. A NLI capable of leveraging this has the potential of being a powerful tool and to our knowledge, no previous research in this area exist. Therefore, this thesis aims at investigating how existing methods and concepts can be applied to the subject of a NLI over several APIs. The thesis is based on an extensive literature study focused on state-of-the-art within portability of NLI research. Methods from this are discussed in the context of a NLI over APIs and a suitable way of approaching a solution is presented. The approach divides the problem into identifying a domain for the conversation using available knowledge bases and handling specific domains individually using dialog state trackers. The main finding of the study is that it is feasible to create a scalable general purpose NLI over web APIs leveraging existing research.