Requirements for natural language fact retrieval

Abstract

One ideal information retrieval system that we can imagine is one that would read the newspaper, understanding and storing the contents of the articles. It would have running knowledge about world events, sports, business, the stock market, and popular medical advances and scientific discoveries. It would know which columnist had written a humerous article about children, the economy, or some well-known personality. It would be able to tell you the latest events in the lives of world figures and celebrities. It would advise you on recipes based on the ingredients you tell it you have available. A user would query the system in English, or some other natural language, using the same language and having a dialog similar to one with a human expert on a particular subject.