Natural Language Model for Predicting User Activity Events

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Solution Overview

Problem

Conventional recommendation systems are inadequate for content management systems due to decreased accuracy in predicting user actions and inflexibility in handling complex data representations, leading to inapplicable suggestions and inefficient resource utilization.

Innovation Solution

A natural language model-based system that analyzes historical user activity events to generate event tokens and predict next user actions by leveraging a trained model to rank candidate sequences of activity events, providing more accurate and contextually relevant recommendations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If conventional recommendation systems are used, then the system structure is simple, but the prediction accuracy of user actions decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesystem structureVSAvoidprediction accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent transforms the recommendation system into a sequence prediction model by changing the fundamental parameter of how user actions are modeled - from simple association rules to natural language sequence processing. This allows the system to capture temporal dependencies and contextual relationships in user behavior, significantly improving prediction accuracy while maintaining reasonable system complexity through the use of pre-trained language models.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces traditional recommendation algorithms with a natural language processing-based sequence prediction model. By treating user action sequences as linguistic data that can be processed by language models, the system achieves higher prediction accuracy without proportionally increasing mechanical complexity, leveraging the power of pre-trained neural networks.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Adaptability or versatility

If conventional recommendation systems are used, then the model is inflexible, but the handling of complex data representations is limited

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvemodel flexibilityVSAvoiddata representation handling
Core Design Contradiction:
Adaptability or versatilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent makes the recommendation system universal by using a natural language model that can process any sequence of user actions regardless of their type or complexity. The same model architecture handles diverse data representations (file operations, folder manipulations, sharing actions, etc.) uniformly, greatly enhancing model flexibility and adaptability to complex data without requiring separate specialized components.

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

3Device complexity

If a limited subset of user activity is considered, then the system complexity is low, but the accuracy of predictions decreases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesystem complexityVSAvoidprediction accuracy
Core Design Contradiction:
Device complexityVSMeasurement precision

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a dynamic approach where the system automatically adapts to consider relevant user activities based on the current context and historical patterns. The sequence prediction model dynamically weights and selects which user actions are most predictive, allowing the system to effectively consider a comprehensive set of user activities without requiring manual configuration or excessive system complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #15Dynamics

4Productivity

If the system provides inapplicable suggestions, then resource utilization is inefficient, but the user experience deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveresource utilizationVSAvoiduser experience
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The sequence prediction model inherently incorporates feedback mechanisms by learning from historical user behavior patterns. The model continuously refines its predictions based on observed user actions, ensuring that suggestions are contextually appropriate and applicable. This feedback-driven approach improves both resource utilization by avoiding irrelevant recommendations and user experience by providing actionable suggestions.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

Data Source

PatentUS11853817B2Utilizing a natural language model to determine a predicted activity event based on a series of sequential tokens
Publication Date: 2023.12.26 DROPBOX INC
  • US11853817B2 patent drawing
  • US11853817B2 patent drawing
  • US11853817B2 patent drawing

AI summary

The present disclosure relates to systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media that can leverage a natural language model to determine a most probable candidate sequence of tokens and thereby generate a predicted user activity. In particular, the disclosed systems can tokenize activity event vectors to generate a series of sequential tokens that correspond to recent user activity of one or more user accounts. In addition, the disclosed systems can, for each candidate (e.g., hypothetical) user activity, augment the series of sequential tokens to include a corresponding token. Based on respective probability scores for each of the augmented series of sequential tokens, the disclosed systems can identify as the predicted user activity, a candidate user activity corresponding to one of the augmented series of sequential tokens associated with a highest probability score. Based on the predicted user activity, the disclosed systems can surface one or more suggestions to a client device.