DETAILED ACTION
This FINAL action is in response to Application No. 18/621,796 filed 3/29/2024. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA . The amendment presented on 5/28/2026 which provides amendment to claims 1, 4-8, 11-13, and 18, is hereby acknowledged. Claims 1-20 are currently pending.
Claim Objections - Withdrawn
The previous claim objection(s) of claim 18 is withdrawn as necessitated by amendment.
Claim Rejections - Withdrawn
The previous 35 U.S.C §102 rejection of claims 1, 2, and 8 over Hernandez et al. (US 2025/0265413 A1) is withdrawn as necessitated by amendment.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the prior art rejections have been considered, however, they are unpersuasive.
Applicant discusses the teachings of Hernandez and Griesbach with regard to the amended claims which include the language of "receiving, from the generative AI model in response to the second prompt, a second thread descriptor, representing a second state of the first thread; determining that the second state of the first thread diverges from the first state of the first thread; generating a selectable thread element corresponding to a second thread; surfacing the second thread descriptor; and storing the second thread descriptor with the second thread". However, Applicant has not discussed the teachings of previously cited Han, which are the most applicable to the amended language.
As shown in the updated rejections below, Han is relied on to suggest analyzing a chat/thread between a user and an agent with artificial intelligence and determining whether one or more chats diverge from a topic/theme in the chat/thread. When a divergence is found, a separate selectable summary is generated for the one or more chats and displayed in a user interface. When a summary is selected by user input, the system retrieves and displays the associated chat/thread allowing a user to continue chatting. The summaries can continue to be updated in association with new chats in the chat/thread. Therefore, a summary is stored in association with a (diverged) thread. See the Han citations below.
As previously shown, Hernandez teaches the prompting of generative AI model to receive a descriptor/summary at a first state and an updated descriptor/summary at a second state for conversational threads in response to query/response pairs received within threads.
With Han determining divergence in a thread of queries and responses and generating and storing new descriptors with each diverged thread, the Examiner submits the combination of Hernandez and Han suggests “receiving, from the generative AI model in response to the second prompt, a second thread descriptor, representing a second state of the first thread; determining that the second state of the first thread diverges from the first state of the first thread; generating a selectable thread element corresponding to a second thread; surfacing the second thread descriptor; and storing the second thread descriptor with the second thread.”
Griesbach remains relied on to suggest that the determination of divergence occurs after a turn specifically defined as a query/response pair (claims 13-15).
See the rejections below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claim(s) 1, 2, and 8-12 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez et al. (US 2025/0265413 A1, filed 2/16/2024, hereinafter “Hernandez”), and further in view of Han et al. (US 2020/0059548 A1, hereinafter “Han”).
Regarding claim 1, Hernandez teaches a computer-implemented method for capturing dynamic states of threads, the method comprising:
receiving, at an application, a first query for a first thread; receiving, at the application, a first response to the first query. More specifically, customers initiate chat sessions with agents; the customers can submit queries, and the agents return responses or vice versa (Hernandez, [0039]-[0042]).
generating a first prompt wherein the first prompt includes the first query and the first response for the first query; providing the first prompt to a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model. More specifically, customer input data can be one message and agent input data can be one message (query-response pair) and is associated with a first state. Data (prompt) is generated with the customer input data and agent input data (query-response) and sent to a large language model for generating a summary (descriptor) (Hernandez, [0046]).
receiving, from the generative AI model in response to the first prompt, a first thread descriptor representing a first state of the thread; surfacing the first thread descriptor; storing the first thread descriptor with the first thread. More specifically, a first summary (thread descriptor) is generated with the large language model and the agents chat interface is updated with the first summary (Hernandez, abstract, [0046]).
receiving, at the application, a second query for the first thread and a second response to the second query. More specifically, at a second state (a second query and second response can be used) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
generating a second prompt wherein the second prompt includes the second query and the second response for the second query; providing the second prompt to the generative AI model. More specifically, the large language model is sent a prompt with the second customer message query and second agent message (second query-response) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
receiving, from the generative AI model in response to the second prompt, a second thread descriptor, representing a second state of the first thread; More specifically, the large language model outputs a second summary (second thread descriptor) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
However, while Hernandez discloses that the second summary could be new summary for a separate portion of the chat session (Hernandez, [0015]), Hernandez may not explicitly teach every aspect of
determining that the second state of the first thread diverges from the first state of the first thread;
generating a selectable thread element corresponding to a second thread;
surfacing the second thread descriptor; and
storing the second thread descriptor with the second thread.
Han discloses an artificial intelligence unit for acquiring at least one conversation, acquiring at least one keyword corresponding to the at least one conversation/chat, and controlling the control unit so as to display summary data including the at least one keyword (Han, abstract, [0009]). The artificial intelligence is able to discern when the topic/theme diverges within a chat as depicted in Figures 8A-C, 9 and 10. (Han, [0255]-[0264]). When a the topic/theme diverges in a chat based on content of a one or more individual chats, such as a chat shown in Figure 9, the artificial intelligence/machine learning determines summary information for the one or more chats corresponding to the diverged topic/theme, and creates a display of selectable summaries as depicted in Figure 10 (Han, [0268]-[0279]). The summaries displayed in Figure 10 are selectable to show the associated chats, e.g., selecting summary 1030 results in displaying the associated chats/thread in Figure 11 (Han, [0280]-[0286]). At least Figure 23 depicts selectable generated summaries of distinct chats, that when selected, allows a user to resume the selected chat (Han, [0412]-[0420]). The summary information is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0421]). The summary information includes a time stamp which is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0424]-[0425]). The selectable summaries are construed as descriptors.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han that a method for generating and storing descriptors of threads would include determining whether a thread diverges and generating selectable descriptors associated with the diverged threads. With Hernandez and Han disclosing generating summaries of conversations with AI where a generated summary could pertain to a separate portion of the thread, and with Han additionally disclosing determining whether the topic/theme of a chat/thread diverges and generate selectable summaries of the diverged chat/threads for retrieving and displaying the diverged chat/thread, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating descriptors of threads would include a user interface displaying generated and selectable up-to-date descriptors in order to allow a user to easily search for information and resume the conversation of the appropriate chats/threads (Han. [0286]). One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating descriptors of threads.
Regarding claim 2, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the application is a web browser having a chat interface. More specifically, the chat session is executed in a web browser (Hernandez, [0035]-[0038])
Regarding claim 8, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the application, a first query for the second thread; generating a third thread descriptor, representing a state of the second thread, based on at least one of the first query of the second thread or a first response to the first query for the second thread; and storing the third thread descriptor with the second thread. More specifically, Figure 5B depicts a display depicting two conversations and their summaries generated by the process cited above (Hernandez, Figure 5B, [0109]). Additionally, Han provides for selecting/querying a summary, displaying the associated chat/thread, continuing the chat/thread, and generating an updated summary (Han, [0412]-[0421]).
Regarding claim 9, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 8, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of further comprising: generating a user interface (UI) comprising: a first selectable UI element representing the first thread, the first selectable UI element including the second thread descriptor; and a second selectable UI element representing the second thread, the second selectable UI element including the third thread descriptor. More specifically, When a the topic/theme diverges in a chat based on content of a one or more individual chats, such as a chat shown in Figure 9, the artificial intelligence/machine learning determines summary information for the one or more chats corresponding to the diverged topic/theme, and creates a display of selectable summaries as depicted in Figure 10 (Han, [0268]-[0279]). The summaries displayed in Figure 10 are selectable to show the associated chats, e.g., selecting summary 1030 results in displaying the associated chats/thread in Figure 11 (Han, [0280]-[0286]).
Regarding claim 10, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 9, wherein the first selectable UI element further includes a timestamp. More specifically, Hernandez depicts the summaries as including a timestamp (Hernandez, at least Figures 5A, 5B, and 6B-6F). Additionally, Han discloses the summary information includes a time stamp which is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0424]-[0425]).
Regarding claim 11, Hernandez teaches a computer-implemented method for capturing dynamic states of threads, the method comprising:
generating a first thread descriptor for a first thread at a first state after a turn; generating an updated first thread descriptor for the first thread at a second state after a subsequent turn; storing the updated first thread descriptor with the first thread. More specifically, customers initiate chat sessions with agents; the customers can submit queries, and the agents return responses or vice versa (Hernandez, [0039]-[0042]). Customer input data can be one message and agent input data can be one message (query-response pair) and is associated with a first state. Data (prompt) is generated with the customer input data and agent input data (query-response) and sent to a large language model for generating a summary (descriptor) (Hernandez, [0046]). A first summary (thread descriptor) is generated with the large language model and the agents chat interface is updated with the first summary (Hernandez, abstract, [0046]). At a second state, a second query and second response can be used (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]). The large language model is sent a prompt with the second customer message query and second agent message (second query-response) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]). The large language model outputs a second summary (second thread descriptor) and updates the agents chat interface with the second summary (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
generating a second thread descriptor, representing a third state of the first thread after a turn. More specifically, the large language model outputs a second summary (second thread descriptor) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
However, while Hernandez discloses that the second summary could be new summary for a separate portion of the chat session (Hernandez, [0015]), Hernandez may not explicitly teach every aspect of
determining that the third state of the first thread diverges from at least one of the first state or the second state;
surfacing the second thread descriptor;
storing the second thread descriptor with the second thread;
generating an updated second thread descriptor for the second thread at a second state after a subsequent turn;
storing the updated second thread descriptor with the second thread;
and generating a user interface comprising: a first selectable user interface (UI) element representing the first thread, the first selectable UI element including the updated first thread descriptor; and a second selectable UI element representing the second thread, the second selectable UI element including the updated second thread descriptor.
Han discloses an artificial intelligence unit for acquiring at least one conversation, acquiring at least one keyword corresponding to the at least one conversation/chat, and controlling the control unit so as to display summary data including the at least one keyword (Han, abstract, [0009]). The artificial intelligence is able to discern when the topic/theme diverges within a chat as depicted in Figures 8A-C, 9 and 10. (Han, [0255]-[0264]). When a the topic/theme diverges in a chat based on content of a one or more individual chats, such as a chat shown in Figure 9, the artificial intelligence/machine learning determines summary information for the one or more chats corresponding to the diverged topic/theme, and creates a display of selectable summaries as depicted in Figure 10 (Han, [0268]-[0279]). The summaries displayed in Figure 10 are selectable to show the associated chats, e.g., selecting summary 1030 results in displaying the associated chats/thread in Figure 11 (Han, [0280]-[0286]). At least Figure 23 depicts selectable generated summaries of distinct chats, that when selected, allows a user to resume the selected chat (Han, [0412]-[0420]). The summary information is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0421]). The summary information includes a time stamp which is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0424]-[0425]). The selectable summaries are construed as descriptors.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han that a method for generating, updating, and storing descriptors of threads would include determining whether a thread diverges and generating updatable selectable descriptors associated with the diverged threads. With Hernandez and Han disclosing generating updatable summaries of conversations with AI where a generated summary could pertain to a separate portion of the thread, and with Han additionally disclosing determining whether the topic/theme of a chat/thread diverges and generate selectable summaries of the diverged chat/threads for retrieving, displaying, and even updating the diverged chat/thread and associated summary, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating, updating, and storing descriptors of threads would include determining whether a thread diverges and generating updatable selectable descriptors associated with the diverged threads in order to allow a user to easily search for information and resume the conversation of the appropriate chats/threads (Han. [0286]). One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating, updating, and storing descriptors of threads.
Regarding claim 12, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 11, further comprising: receiving a selection of the first selectable UI element; and based on receiving the selecting, opening the first thread in the second state. More specifically, at least Figure 23 depicts selectable generated summaries of distinct chats, that when selected, allows a user to resume the selected chat, and generate an updated summary (Han, [0412]-[0421]).
Claim(s) 3 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han, and further in view of Sotiriou et al. (US 2025/0069086 A1, filed 2/14/2024, hereinafter “Sotiriou”).
Regarding claim 3, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 1, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of wherein the first prompt further includes grounding data used in generating the first response.
Sotiriou discloses a method for enhancing agent-customer interactions in a digital engagement service. The method includes receiving a customer's communication request (query) and presenting the request to an available agent through a user interface for generating a response (Sotiriou, abstract). The process of getting a response from an agent includes generating a prompt to an LLM which includes at least previous chatbot interactions (query context) and customer profile data (grounding data) and presenting the result to the agent (Sotiriou, [0065], [0081]). After a response/discussion is provided by the agent in step 408, another prompt is generated to the LLM at 414 for generating a summary of the conversation between the customer and the agent (Sotiriou, [0069]-[0070]). The prompt for the summarization of the conversation uses both the customer interactions as well as context/profile data (grounding data) (Sotiriou, [0078], [0087], [0089])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Sotiriou that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of query-response pairs using generated prompts would include using the grounding data used in generating the responses for the prompt for generating the descriptor. With Hernandez and Sotiriou disclosing interaction between a client and agent involving queries and responses, and prompting a generative AI model for generating summaries of the interaction, and with Sotiriou additionally disclosing using the same contextual (grounding) data when generating responses as well as the interaction summaries, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of query-response pairs using generated prompts would include using the grounding data used in generating the responses for the prompt for generating the descriptor in order to ensure the responses and summaries are the most relevant to the queries. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of query-response pairs using generated prompts.
Claim(s) 4 and 5 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han, and further in view of Tanikella (US 2023/0376515 A1, filed 5/18/2022).
Regarding claim 4, Hernandez and Han teaches the computer-implemented method of claim 1, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of wherein the second thread descriptor includes at least one of a title for the second thread, a synopsis for the second thread, or an image for the second thread.
Tanikella discloses techniques for generating summary documents from conversations within a communication platform. A machine-learned summarization model can receive some or all of the contents of a virtual space and can generate a summarization document reflecting the contents of various communications (Tanikella, abstract). The summary document may include various visualizations (images), such as but not limited to, a cluster of profile photo of icons representing engagements of users in the conversation, a cluster of emojis used in the conversations representing the sentiments of the conversation, a compilation of visual elements in a tree structure representing the intensity and evolution of user reactions and engagements in the conversation, and/or the like (Tanikella, [0022]). The communication platform can treat the summary document as a synopsis or outline of the virtual space and the posts, events, etc. that took place within the virtual space (Tanikella, [0023]). The summary can consist of a title (Tanikella, [0129]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Tanikella that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is one of a title, synopsis, or an image. With Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella disclosing generating summaries of communications, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, and with Tanikella additionally disclosing the summaries include one of a title, synopsis, or an visual/image, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is one of a title, synopsis, or an image in order to provide a more user friendly way of distinguishing the summaries from each other. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
Regarding claim 5, Hernandez and Han with Tanikella teach the computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the second thread descriptor is the synopsis for the second thread, and the second prompt includes static instructions for generating the synopsis. More specifically, Tanikella suggests the descriptor is one of a title, synopsis, or an image (Tanikella, [0022], [0023], [0129]). Hernandez suggests static instructions for the summary prompt can include a randomness parameter, minimum/maximum length, etc. (Hernandez, [0103]).
Claim(s) 6 and 7 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han with Tanikella, and further in view of Wilson et al. (US 2022/0068296 A1, hereinafter “Wilson”).
Regarding claim 6, Hernandez and Han with Tanikella teach the computer-implemented method of claim 4, wherein the second thread descriptor is the image for the second thread. More specifically, Tanikella suggests the descriptor is one of a title, synopsis, or an image (Tanikella, [0022], [0023], [0129]). Hernandez additionally suggests static instructions for the summary prompt can include a randomness/creativeness parameter, minimum/maximum length, etc. (Hernandez, [0103]).
However, Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella may not explicitly teach every aspect of
the second prompt includes static instructions for generating the image.
Wilson discloses an approach to generating image representations of a conversation between a plurality of users. Generating one or more image representations of the one or more detected utterances utilizes a generative adversarial network restricted by one or more user privacy parameters, wherein the generative adversarial network is fed with an extracted sentiment, a generated avatar, an identified topic, an extracted location, and one or more user preferences. Embodiments of the present invention summarize conversations and display textual topics that are difficult to convey without visual cues. The program 150 utilizes the identified information as inputs to a trained GAN (i.e., image generator model 156) creating image representations of conversations (Wilson, abstract, [0010], [0023], [0037], at least user preferences or privacy parameters can be construed as static instructions for generating the image). The conversations are any of email, instant message, direct message, text message, social media post, spoken message, etc. (Wilson, [0026]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella with Wilson that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts, the descriptor being one of a title, synopsis, or an image would include that generating an image representation of the descriptor uses a prompt with static instructions for generating the image. With Hernandez, Han, Tanikella, and Wilson disclosing generating summaries of conversations, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, with Tanikella and Wilson disclosing the summaries including an visual/image, and with Wilson additionally disclosing using static instructions for generating the image, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts, the descriptor being one of a title, synopsis, or an image would include that generating an image representation of the descriptor uses a prompt with static instructions for generating the image in order to allow a user to set and maintain their privacy in image generation technologies. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
Regarding claim 7, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 1, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of wherein the second thread descriptor includes at least one of a synopsis or title for the second thread.
Tanikella discloses techniques for generating summary documents from conversations within a communication platform. A machine-learned summarization model can receive some or all of the contents of a virtual space and can generate a summarization document reflecting the contents of various communications (Tanikella, abstract). The summary document may include various visualizations, such as but not limited to, a cluster of profile photo of icons representing engagements of users in the conversation, a cluster of emojis used in the conversations representing the sentiments of the conversation, a compilation of visual elements in a tree structure representing the intensity and evolution of user reactions and engagements in the conversation, and/or the like (Tanikella, [0022]). The communication platform can treat the summary document as a synopsis or outline of the virtual space and the posts, events, etc. that took place within the virtual space (Tanikella, [0023]). The summary can consist of a title (Tanikella, [0129]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Tanikella that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is one of a title or synopsis. With Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella disclosing generating summaries of communications, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, and with Tanikella additionally disclosing the summaries include one of a title, synopsis, or an visual/image, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is one of a title or synopsis in order to provide a more user friendly way of distinguishing the summaries from each other. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
While Tanikella additionally suggests the summary includes generated images, Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella may not explicitly teach every aspect of
and the method further comprises: generating a third prompt including at least the synopsis or title and static instructions for generating an image; providing the third prompt to the generative AI model; and receiving, from the generative AI model, the image as another thread descriptor.
Wilson discloses an approach to generating image representations of a conversation between a plurality of users. Generating one or more image representations of the one or more detected utterances utilizes a generative adversarial network restricted by one or more user privacy parameters, wherein the generative adversarial network is fed with an extracted sentiment, a generated avatar, an identified topic, an extracted location, and one or more user preferences. Embodiments of the present invention summarize conversations and display textual topics that are difficult to convey without visual cues. The program 150 utilizes the identified information as inputs to a trained GAN (i.e., image generator model 156) creating image representations of conversations (Wilson, abstract, [0010], [0023], [0037], at least user preferences or privacy parameters can be construed as static instructions for generating the image). The conversations are any of email, instant message, direct message, text message, social media post, spoken message, etc. (Wilson, [0026]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez, Han, and Tanikella with Wilson that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts, the descriptor being one of a title, synopsis, or an image would include that generating an image representation of the descriptor uses a prompt with static instructions for generating the image. With Hernandez, Tanikella, and Wilson disclosing generating summaries of conversations, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, with Tanikella and Wilson disclosing the summaries including an visual/image, and with Wilson additionally disclosing using static instructions for generating the image, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts, the descriptor being one of a title, synopsis, or an image would include that generating an image representation of the descriptor uses a prompt with static instructions for generating the image in order to allow a user to set and maintain their privacy in image generation technologies. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
Claim(s) 13-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han, and further in view of Griesbach et al. (US 2023/0370410 A1, hereinafter “Griesbach”).
Regarding claim 13, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 11, including the that the prompt for generating a chat summary includes the previously generated summary, and determining whether a generated summary for a chat/conversation has different information from a previously generated summary, and either updating the summary or creating a new summary for a separate portion of the chat (Hernandez, [0015], [0062], [0069], [0071]).
However, while Hernandez discloses that the second summary could be new summary for a separate portion of the chat session (Hernandez, [0015]), and Han discloses determining one or more diverges of topic/theme in a chat/thread and generating selectable summaries for accessing and displaying the chats/thread tied to the summary (Han, [0268]-[0286]), Hernandez and Han may not explicitly teach every aspect of determining the divergence after a turn being a query and a response to the query pairing. More specifically, Hernandez and Han may not explicitly teach every aspect of
further comprising: receiving an additional turn to the first thread, thereby forming a fourth state for the first thread; determining that the additional turn diverges from a prior state of the first thread; based on the additional turn diverging from the first thread, generating a prompt including the updated first thread descriptor and the turn wherein the turn is a query and a response to the query; providing the prompt to a generative AI model; receiving, from the generative AI model in response to the prompt, a new thread descriptor, representing the fourth state of the first thread; storing the new thread descriptor with the first thread; and surfacing the new thread descriptor, wherein the new thread descriptor replaces the updated first thread descriptor.
Griesbach discloses detecting at least one question (query) in a message thread and to determine if the message thread includes at least one answer (response) responding to the at least one question. From this, the system generates a summary of the message thread based on the detection of the at least one question and the determination of the at least one answer, and outputs for display the summary of the message thread to a recipient of the message thread (Griesbach, abstract). The processor may identify the fork email thread by determining if its content presented therein materially deviates from the original topic. The processor may in turn generate an individual summary for each fork email thread (Griesbach, [0011], [0086]-[0087], Figure 10). The summaries are generated using a machine learning model (Griesbach, [0040], [0060], [0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Griesbach that a method for generating descriptors of threads including determining whether a subsequent generated descriptor has different information would include determining whether the thread diverts from the previously generated descriptor after a query/query answer pairing and generating a prompt for the generating and displaying the new descriptor according to the divergence. With Hernandez, Han, and Griesbach disclosing generating summaries of conversations, with Hernandez additionally suggesting that a second summary could either be used to update the previous summary or be a new summary for a chat, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, and with Griesbach additionally suggesting determining when a topic of the thread forks based on a question and answer pairing, and generating a new summary accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating descriptors of threads including determining whether a subsequent generated descriptor has different information would include would include determining whether the thread diverts from the previously generated descriptor after a query/query answer pairing and generating a prompt for the generating and displaying the new descriptor according to the divergence in order to allow a user to understand the most up-to-date subject matter of the conversation in the appropriate chats/threads in case a user-query is directed toward a change in topic. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating descriptors of threads.
Regarding claim 14, Hernandez, Han, and Griesbach suggest the computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the determining that the additional turn diverges further comprises: generating an embedding for the additional turn; and comparing the embedding for the additional turn to one or more embeddings for previous turns within the first thread. More specifically, this claim is suggested by the combination of Hernandez, Han, and Griesbach where an embedding is generated based on the generated summaries, which in turn can be based on one query-response pair; the embeddings are used to determine where a subsequent summary is different from a prior summary for updating the summary (Hernandez, [0049]-[0050], [0066], [0070] [0120]-[0122]), and determining that a fork in the thread occurs and generating a new summary (Griesbach, [0011], [0086]-[0087], Figure 10).
Regarding claim 15, Hernandez, Han, and Griesbach suggest the computer-implemented method of claim 13, wherein the determining that the additional turn diverges further comprises: generating a divergence prompt including the additional turn and at least one of a prior query, a prior response, or a prior thread descriptor; providing the divergence prompt to the generative AI model; receiving a divergence output from the generative AI model; and determining that the additional turn diverges based on the divergence output. More specifically, this claim is suggested by the combination of Hernandez, Han, and Griesbach where a prompt for a new descriptor includes a previous descriptor as well as a query-response pair (Hernandez, [0015], [0046], [0062], [0069], [0071]), determining that a query-response pair diverges from the previous descriptor (Griesbach, [0011], [0086]-[0087], Figure 10), and determining that a second generated descriptor is different from the prior descriptor (Hernandez, [0015], [0062], [0069], [0071]).
Claim(s) 16 and 17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han, and further in view of Tanikella.
Regarding claim 16, Hernandez and Han teach the computer-implemented method of claim 11, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of wherein the first selectable UI element includes at least two of a title, a synopsis, an image, a time stamp, and a thread preview for the first thread.
Tanikella discloses techniques for generating summary documents from conversations within a communication platform. A machine-learned summarization model can receive some or all of the contents of a virtual space and can generate a summarization document reflecting the contents of various communications (Tanikella, abstract). The summary document may include various visualizations, such as but not limited to, a cluster of profile photo of icons representing engagements of users in the conversation, a cluster of emojis used in the conversations representing the sentiments of the conversation, a compilation of visual elements in a tree structure representing the intensity and evolution of user reactions and engagements in the conversation, and/or the like (Tanikella, [0022]). The communication platform can treat the summary document as a synopsis or outline of the virtual space and the posts, events, etc. that took place within the virtual space (Tanikella, [0023]). The summary can consist of a title (Tanikella, [0129]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Tanikella that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is at least two of a title, a synopsis, an image, a time stamp, and a thread preview for the first thread. With Hernandez and Han with Tanikella disclosing generating summaries of communications, with Han disclosing generating a second selectable summary when the thread diverges, and with Tanikella additionally disclosing the summaries include a title, synopsis, or an visual/image, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts would include that the descriptor is at least two of a title, a synopsis, an image, a time stamp, and a thread preview for the first thread in order to provide a more user friendly way of distinguishing the summaries from each other. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
Regarding claim 17, Hernandez and Han with Tanikella teach the computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the first selectable UI element includes at least the title and the image. More specifically, the summary document may include various visualizations, such as but not limited to, a cluster of profile photo of icons representing engagements of users in the conversation, a cluster of emojis used in the conversations representing the sentiments of the conversation, a compilation of visual elements in a tree structure representing the intensity and evolution of user reactions and engagements in the conversation, and/or the like (Tanikella, [0022]). The communication platform can treat the summary document as a synopsis or outline of the virtual space and the posts, events, etc. that took place within the virtual space (Tanikella, [0023]). The summary can consist of a title (Tanikella, [0129]).
Claim(s) 18 and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez and Han, and further in view of Perkins et al. (US 2025/0078822 A1, filed 8/28/2023, hereinafter “Perkins”).
Regarding claim 18, Hernandez system for generating dynamic representations for threads, comprising: at least one processor; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
receive a first input query for a first thread; receive, …, a first response to the first query. More specifically, customers initiate chat sessions with agents; the customers can submit queries, and the agents return responses or vice versa (Hernandez, [0039]-[0042]).
generate a first descriptor prompt including at least one of the first input query and the first response; provide the first descriptor prompt to a … generative AI model. More specifically, customer input data can be one message and agent input data can be one message (query-response pair) and is associated with a first state. Data (prompt) is generated with the customer input data and agent input data (query-response) and sent to a large language model for generating a summary (descriptor) (Hernandez, [0046]).
receive, from the … generative AI model in response to the first descriptor prompt, a first thread descriptor representative of a first state of the thread; surface the first thread descriptor. More specifically, a first summary (thread descriptor) is generated with the large language model and the agents chat interface is updated with the first summary (Hernandez, abstract, [0046]).
receive a second input query for the thread; receive, …, a second response to the second input query. More specifically, at a second state (a second query and second response can be used) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
generate a second descriptor prompt including at least one of the second input query and the second response; provide the second descriptor prompt to the … generative AI model. More specifically, the large language model is sent a prompt with the second customer message query and second agent message (second query-response) (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
receive, from the … generative AI model in response to the second descriptor prompt, a second thread descriptor representative of a second state of the first thread; More specifically, the large language model outputs a second summary (second thread descriptor) and updates the agents chat interface with the second summary (Hernandez, abstract, [0065]).
However, while Hernandez discloses that the second summary could be new summary for a separate portion of the chat session (Hernandez, [0015]), Hernandez may not explicitly teach every aspect of
determining that the second state of the first thread diverges from the first state of the first thread;
generating a selectable thread element corresponding to a second thread;
surfacing the second thread descriptor; and
storing the second thread descriptor with a second thread.
Han discloses an artificial intelligence unit for acquiring at least one conversation, acquiring at least one keyword corresponding to the at least one conversation/chat, and controlling the control unit so as to display summary data including the at least one keyword (Han, abstract, [0009]). The artificial intelligence is able to discern when the topic/theme diverges within a chat as depicted in Figures 8A-C, 9 and 10. (Han, [0255]-[0264]). When a the topic/theme diverges in a chat based on content of a one or more individual chats, such as a chat shown in Figure 9, the artificial intelligence/machine learning determines summary information for the one or more chats corresponding to the diverged topic/theme, and creates a display of selectable summaries as depicted in Figure 10 (Han, [0268]-[0279]). The summaries displayed in Figure 10 are selectable to show the associated chats, e.g., selecting summary 1030 results in displaying the associated chats/thread in Figure 11 (Han, [0280]-[0286]). At least Figure 23 depicts selectable generated summaries of distinct chats, that when selected, allows a user to resume the selected chat (Han, [0412]-[0420]). The summary information is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0421]). The summary information includes a time stamp which is updated when a new chat is received (Han, [0424]-[0425]). The selectable summaries are construed as descriptors.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han that a method for generating and storing descriptors of threads would include determining whether a thread diverges and generating selectable descriptors associated with the diverged threads. With Hernandez and Han disclosing generating summaries of conversations with AI where a generated summary could pertain to a separate portion of the thread, and with Han additionally disclosing determining whether the topic/theme of a chat/thread diverges and generate selectable summaries of the diverged chat/threads for retrieving and displaying the diverged chat/thread, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating descriptors of threads would include a user interface displaying generated and selectable up-to-date descriptors in order to allow a user to easily search for information and resume the conversation of the appropriate chats/threads (Han. [0286]). One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating descriptors of threads.
However, Hernandez and Han may not explicitly teach every aspect of
[the first and second response is received] from a first generative artificial intelligence (AI) model;
[the first and second descriptor prompt is provided] to a second generative artificial intelligence (AI) model; [and]
[the first and second thread descriptors is received] from the [second] generative artificial intelligence (AI) model.
Perkins discloses a communications session with a user may be automated using a language model. The language model may be instructed to select a next action to be performed where the next action may include transmitting a responsive communication to the user. Prompts used to query the language model may include a representation of text of the communications session (Perkins, abstract). A user submits a customer support query, and the language model returns a response (Perkins, [0039]). Generating a summary of the communications can be performed by either the same language model used to for the customer support process or a different mathematical model or language model (Perkins, [0062]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez and Han with Perkins that a method for generating descriptors for threads would include using a first generative model for responding to queries from users in the conversation and a different generative model for generating descriptors of the threads. With Hernandez and Perkins disclosing generating responses to queries from users in conversations as well as generating summaries of conversations, and with Perkins additionally suggesting using a separate generative models for generating responses to queries and generating summaries, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating descriptors for threads would include using a first generative model for responding to queries from users in the conversation and a different generative model for generating descriptors of the threads in order to reduce processing requirements for the generative models. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating descriptors for threads.
Regarding claim 20, Hernandez and Han with Perkins teach the system of claim 18, wherein the first thread descriptor includes at least one of a title, a synopsis, or an image. More specifically, the program utilizes the identified information (including an identified topic, construable as a descriptor) as inputs to a trained GAN (i.e., image generator model 156) creating image representations of conversations (Wilson, abstract, [0010], [0023], [0037]).
Claim(s) 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hernandez, Han, and Perkins, and further in view of Wilson.
Regarding claim 19, Hernandez and Han with Perkins teach the system of claim 18, however, may not explicitly teach every aspect of wherein the operations further comprise: generate a prompt that includes the second thread descriptor; provide the prompt to an image-generating generative AI model; and receive, from the image-generating generative AI model, an image based on at least the second thread descriptor.
Wilson discloses an approach to generating image representations of a conversation between a plurality of users. Generating one or more image representations of the one or more detected utterances utilizes a generative adversarial network restricted by one or more user privacy parameters, wherein the generative adversarial network is fed with an extracted sentiment, a generated avatar, an identified topic, an extracted location, and one or more user preferences. Embodiments of the present invention summarize conversations and display textual topics that are difficult to convey without visual cues. The program identifies users, sentiment, and location in a conversation (e.g., textual or auditory) utilizing a plurality of models (i.e., user model 152, location model 154, etc.).The program utilizes the identified information (including an identified topic, construable as a descriptor) as inputs to a trained GAN (i.e., image generator model 156) creating image representations of conversations (Wilson, abstract, [0010], [0023], [0037], at least user preferences or privacy parameters can be construed as static instructions for generating the image). The conversations are any of email, instant message, direct message, text message, social media post, spoken message, etc. (Wilson, [0026]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention given the teachings of Hernandez, Han, and Perkins with Wilson that a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications would include the descriptor including a visual/image generated with a prompt including the descriptor. With Hernandez, Han, Perkins, and Wilson disclosing generating summaries of conversations, with Wilson disclosing the summaries including an visual/image generated with a prompt including an identified topic/summary, one of ordinary skill in the art of implementing a method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts, the descriptor being one of a title, synopsis, or an image would include that generating an image representation of the descriptor uses a prompt with static instructions for generating the image in order to provide a more user friendly way of distinguishing the summaries from each other. One would therefore be motivated to combine these teachings as in doing so would create this method for generating a descriptor of a thread of communications using generated prompts.
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record on form PTO-892 and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure. Applicant is required under 37 C.F.R. § 1.111(c) to consider these references fully when responding to this action.
Dogget (US 2024/0394965 A1) – generates continuously updated summaries of conversations with a virtual character using a machine learning model.
Mauer (US 2024/0176960 A1) – generates continuously updated summaries of conversations using a machine learning model.
Wang (US 2021/0103636 A1) – generating thread summaries with a machine learning model.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to PATRICK F RIEGLER whose telephone number is (571)270-3625. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30am-6:00pm, ET.
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/PATRICK F RIEGLER/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2171
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