Large-scale Interactive Conversational Recommendation System using Actor-Critic Framework

Large-scale Interactive Conversational Recommendation System using Actor-Critic Framework. Montazeralghaem, A., Allan, J., & Thomas, P. S. In Fifteenth ACM Conference on Recommender Systems, pages 220-229, September, 2021. ACM.

Paper doi abstract bibtex

We propose AC-CRS, a novel conversational recommendation system based on reinforcement learning that better models user interaction compared to prior work. Interactive recommender systems expect an initial request from a user and then iterate by asking questions or recommending potential matching items, continuing until some stopping criterion is achieved. Unlike most existing works that stop as soon as an item is recommended, we model the more realistic expectation that the interaction will continue if the item is not appropriate. Using this process, AC-CRS is able to support a more flexible conversation with users. Unlike existing models, AC-CRS is able to estimate a value for each question in the conversation to make sure that questions asked by the agent are relevant to the target item (i.e., user needs). We also model the possibility that the system could suggest more than one item in a given turn, allowing it to take advantage of screen space if it is present. AC-CRS also better accommodates the massive space of items that a real-world recommender system must handle. Experiments on real-world user purchasing data show the effectiveness of our model in terms of standard evaluation measures such as NDCG.

@inproceedings{Montazeralghaem_2021,
  abstract = {We propose AC-CRS, a novel conversational recommendation system based on reinforcement learning that better models user interaction compared to prior work. Interactive recommender systems expect an initial request from a user and then iterate by asking questions or recommending potential matching items, continuing until some stopping criterion is achieved. Unlike most existing works that stop as soon as an item is recommended, we model the more realistic expectation that the interaction will continue if the item is not appropriate. Using this process, AC-CRS is able to support a more flexible conversation with users. Unlike existing models, AC-CRS is able to estimate a value for each question in the conversation to make sure that questions asked by the agent are relevant to the target item (i.e., user needs). We also model the possibility that the system could suggest more than one item in a given turn, allowing it to take advantage of screen space if it is present. AC-CRS also better accommodates the massive space of items that a real-world recommender system must handle. Experiments on real-world user purchasing data show the effectiveness of our model in terms of standard evaluation measures such as NDCG.

},
  added-at = {2021-10-06T20:53:42.000+0200},
  author = {Montazeralghaem, Ali and Allan, James and Thomas, Philip S.},
  biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2866b741061ee06fbd621da89a0059b12/brusilovsky},
  booktitle = {Fifteenth {ACM} Conference on Recommender Systems},
  description = {Large-scale Interactive Conversational Recommendation System using Actor-Critic Framework | Fifteenth ACM Conference on Recommender Systems},
  doi = {10.1145/3460231.3474271},
  interhash = {cbc978ff6823c7544367c6901a4ad983},
  intrahash = {866b741061ee06fbd621da89a0059b12},
  keywords = {recsys2021 reinforcement-learning conversational-recommender},
  month = sep,
  pages = {220-229},
  privnote = {One more fully data-driven conversational recommender with online evaluation, no user study. New trend?},
  publisher = {{ACM}},
  timestamp = {2021-10-06T20:53:42.000+0200},
  title = {Large-scale Interactive Conversational Recommendation System using Actor-Critic Framework},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1145%2F3460231.3474271},
  year = 2021
}

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