Generating Topic-Based Chatbot Responses

Abstract: With the rising popularity of chatbots, not just in entertainment but in e-commerce and online chat support, it’s become increasingly important to be able to quickly set up chatbots that can respond to simple questions. This study examines which of two algorithms for automatic generation of chatbot knowledge bases, First Word Search or Most Significant Word Search, is able to generate the responses that are the most relevant to the topic of a question. It also examines how text corpora might be used as a source from which to generate chatbot knowledge bases. Two chatbots were developed for this project, one for each of the two algorithms that are to be examined. The chatbots are evaluated through a survey where the participants are asked to choose which of the algorithms they thought chose the response that was most relevant to a question. Based on the survey we conclude that Most Significant Word Search is the algorithm that picks the most relevant responses. Most Significant Word Search has a significantly higher chance of generating a response that is relevant to the topic. However, how well a text corpus works as a source for knowledge bases depends entirely on the quality and nature of the corpus. A corpus consisting of written dialogue is likely more suitable for conversion into a knowledge base.