From Search Queries to Conversations in the Design of Information Retrieval and Access Systems

With the introduction of new types of devices in our everyday lives such as intelligent assistants, the way people access information and their expectations have significantly changed. Most interactions now happen through conversations held over devices with small interfaces as opposed to search queries. This change has many implications in the design of information retrieval and access (IR) systems: we need to develop systems that can reduce user effort by reducing the number of user interactions needed with the device, while providing correct and unbiased information. Even though interactions based on conversations have its own unique challenges, most of these challenges have already been widely studied in context of traditional search systems. In this talk, I will talk about some of the progress we have made towards solving these challenges in context of traditional search systems and how we have built …