Graph Neural Network Entity Recommendation System

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Solution Overview

Problem

Existing entity recommendation systems face challenges in capturing subtleties and complexities due to simplistic two-entity models, leading to poor accuracy and maintenance issues, especially in real-world systems with multiple information sources.

Innovation Solution

The approach models users and items as complex entities composed of static sub-entities and dynamic components, utilizing bipartite graphs to represent relationships, and employs a multi-layer neural network architecture with graph-based convolutional neural networks to compute vector representations and generate relevance scores without hand-designed features.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Measurement precision

If a simplistic two-entity model is used for recommendation, then the system formulation becomes tractable and can be addressed using rigorous algorithms, but the system ignores subtleties and complexities of key information available in the system, leading to poor accuracy

Engineering Contradiction:
Improverecommendation accuracyVSAvoidsystem model complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments the recommendation system into multiple entity types (users, items, contexts, devices, locations, time periods) rather than treating it as a simple two-entity model. Each entity type can have its own attributes and relationships, allowing the system to capture complex information while maintaining structured formulations that can be addressed with rigorous algorithms.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent adds multiple dimensions to the recommendation model by introducing context entities that represent different aspects (device, location, time period, etc.). This transforms the simple user-item recommendation problem into a multi-dimensional framework where recommendations can be made based on combinations of user, item, and context attributes, thereby capturing subtleties and complexities without losing tractability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

2Adaptability or versatility

If content filtering approaches with hand-designed features are used, then the system can capture key information in the system, but designing features is a difficult problem and the system suffers from poor accuracy and difficult maintenance cycle

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation capture capabilityVSAvoidfeature design difficulty
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSEase of manufacture

Solution Approach 1:

The patent enables the system to automatically learn and represent features through the multi-entity framework and associated algorithms, rather than requiring manual feature design. The system self-adapts to capture key information by defining relationships and attributes between entity types, eliminating the need for difficult hand-designed features while improving both accuracy and maintainability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

3Loss of information

If a multi-entity model is used to capture subtleties and complexities, then the system can automatically capture information subtleties and complexities, but the system complexity increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveinformation subtlety captureVSAvoidsystem structure complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent creates a universal multi-entity framework that can handle various types of information (users, items, contexts, devices, locations, time periods) within a single structured model. This universal approach allows the system to capture diverse information subtleties and complexities while maintaining a consistent formulation that can be addressed using rigorous algorithms, thereby managing system complexity despite the increased modeling capability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentEP3994645B1Message recommendation system
Publication Date: 2024.11.20 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • EP3994645B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3994645B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3994645B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

Systems and methods for entity recommendation can make use of rich data by allowing the items to be recommended and the recipients of the recommendation (e.g., users) to be modeled as "complex entities" composed of one or more static sub-entities and/or a dynamic component, and by utilizing information about multiple relationships between the sub-entities as reflected in bipartite graphs. Generating recommendations from such information may involve creating vector representations of the sub-entities based on the bipartite graphs (e.g., using graph-based convolutional networks), and combining these vector representations into representations of the items and users (or other recipients) to be fed into a classifier model.