Ground Truth Weighting for QA Systems

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Solution Overview

Problem

The collection of ground truth for QA systems is often time-consuming and costly, particularly when adapting to new domains or customers, as it typically requires engagement from Subject Matter Experts or collaborative models involving multiple stakeholders.

Innovation Solution

A method that weights ground truth instances from different sources based on their level of trust, allowing for the adjustment of loss functions and instance duplication in machine learning tasks, incorporating validation from Subject Matter Experts, QA system developers, and crowdsource users to prioritize more trusted answers.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If ground truth is collected from multiple sources with varying trust levels, then the quality and confidence of answers improve, but the complexity of managing and weighting different sources increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequality of ground truthVSAvoidcomplexity of source management
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent assigns different trust weights to different ground truth sources based on their local characteristics and reliability. Each source (SMEs, developers, crowdsource users) receives a specific weight reflecting its trust level, allowing the system to differentiate quality across sources rather than treating all sources equally. This resolves the contradiction by systematically managing source diversity through localized quality assessment.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #3Local quality

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces trust weights as a parameter to quantify and manage the reliability of different ground truth sources. By converting qualitative trust assessments into quantitative weights that can be applied during training, the system simplifies the management of multiple sources. This parameter-based approach transforms the complex qualitative judgment of source reliability into a manageable numerical system.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

2Reliability

If ground truth collection relies on Subject Matter Experts, then the accuracy and trustworthiness of answers improve, but the time and cost required for collection increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetrustworthiness of ground truthVSAvoidtime for ground truth collection
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies partial action by using SMEs only for the most critical ground truth instances where their expertise provides the greatest value. Rather than requiring SME validation for all ground truth, the system strategically applies SME validation to high-impact cases while using less resource-intensive sources for other instances, optimizing the time-cost versus reliability tradeoff.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces trust weights as an intermediary mechanism that mediates between expensive SME-validated ground truth and cheaper alternative sources. The weighting system acts as a mediator that allows the model to learn from multiple sources while automatically prioritizing SME-validated instances during training, reducing the need for extensive SME involvement while maintaining reliability.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

3Measurement precision

If ground truth instances are weighted by trust level, then the model learns more accurate patterns, but the computational complexity of training increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvelearning accuracyVSAvoidcomputational complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent performs preliminary action by pre-calculating and assigning trust weights to different ground truth sources before the actual training process. This upfront classification and weighting of sources based on their reliability eliminates the need for complex real-time calculations during training, reducing computational complexity while maintaining learning accuracy. The heavy lifting of trust assessment is done beforehand.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent implements dynamic weighting where the influence of different ground truth sources is adjusted based on their trust levels during the training process. The loss function dynamically incorporates trust weights to modulate the learning signal from different sources, allowing the model to adaptively focus on more reliable instances while still learning from less reliable ones, balancing accuracy and computational efficiency.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentUS10169717B2System and method for defining and using different levels of ground truth
Publication Date: 2019.01.01 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION
  • US10169717B2 patent drawing
  • US10169717B2 patent drawing
  • US10169717B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A method, computer program product, and computer system, for receiving a first set of ground truth instances from a first source. A second set of ground truth instances may be received from a second source. The first and second sets of ground truth instances may be weighted differently based on a level of trust associated with each of the first and second sources. The weighted first and second sets of ground truth instances may be applied in a machine learning task executed by a computer.