Artificial Intelligence for .Net: Speech, Language, and Search: Building Smart Applications with Microsoft Cognitive Services APIs

278 Pages·7.758 MB·

by  Pathak, Nishith

Artificial
Intelligence for .NET:
Speech, Language,
and Search
Building Smart Applications with Microsoft
Cognitive Services APIs
—
Nishith Pathak
Artificial Intelligence
for .NET: Speech,
Language, and Search
Building Smart Applications with Microsoft
Cognitive Services APIs
Nishith Pathak
With Contributing Author as Anurag Bhandari
Artificial Intelligence for .NET: Speech, Language, and Search
Nishith Pathak
Kotdwara, Dist. Pauri Garhwal, India
ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-2948-4 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-2949-1
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4842-2949-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017951713
Copyright © 2017 by Nishith Pathak
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Printed on acid-free paper
To the most important person in my life, my mother, late Bina Pathak, for her guidance,
sacrifices, prayers, and blessings, which made me What I am today. I miss her each day. To my
father, Pankaj Pathak, for teaching me to do what I believe in. You are and will always be my role
model and my hero for my entire life. To my Sadh-Gurudev, who has been an eternal guiding
force and entirely changed my life. To my grandfather, the late Mahesh Chandra Pathak,
for his blessings and moral values.
To my wife, Surabhi, for bearing with me, sacrificing her splendid career for our family, and
always staying by my side through all the ups and downs. Getting married to you is
the most beautiful thing in my life. You have given me the most precious diamond of my life,
Shikhar, whom I love more than anyone else. I know this book has taken a lot of me and I
haven’t been able to spend enough time with you, Papa and Shikhar for the past year since
I’ve been working tirelessly to give this pleasant surprise. Surabhi and Shikhar, this book would not
have been possible without all your sacrifices.
To my lovely sister, Tanwi, and my niece, Aadhya—your smiling faces give me a lot of strength
and inspiration to do better each day. To my Guruji, JP Kukreti, SS Tyagi, and Rajesh Tripathi,
who have been there for me countless times and always provide me with comfort,
understanding, spiritual beliefs, and lots of motivation.
Lastly, I thank God for blessing me with such wonderful people in my life.
Contents at a Glance
About the Author �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
About the Contributing Author �������������������������������������������������������������������������������xvii
About the Technical Reviewer ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������xix
Acknowledgments ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxi
Introduction ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxiii
■ Chapter 1: Getting Started with AI Basics �������������������������������������������������������������1
■ Chapter 2: Creating an AI-Based Application in Visual Studio ����������������������������23
■ Chapter 3: Building a Conversational User Interface with
Microsoft Technologies����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������45
■ Chapter 4: Using Natural Language Understanding ���������������������������������������������71
■ Chapter 5: Exploring a Cognitive Language Model ����������������������������������������������93
■ Chapter 6: Consuming and Applying LUIS ���������������������������������������������������������131
■ Chapter 7: Interacting with the Speech API ������������������������������������������������������161
■ Chapter 8: Applying Search Offerings ���������������������������������������������������������������193
■ Chapter 9: Working with Recommendations �����������������������������������������������������221
■ Chapter 10: The Future of AI ������������������������������������������������������������������������������247
Index ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������261
v
Contents
About the Author �����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv
About the Contributing Author �������������������������������������������������������������������������������xvii
About the Technical Reviewer ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������xix
Acknowledgments ��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxi
Introduction ����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xxiii
■ Chapter 1: Getting Started with AI Basics �������������������������������������������������������������1
Truth vs. Fiction ................................................................................................................2
History and Evolution .......................................................................................................3
The Current State of Affairs ....................................................................................................................4
Commoditization of AI .............................................................................................................................4
Microsoft and AI ...............................................................................................................5
Basic Concepts .................................................................................................................6
Machine Learning ...................................................................................................................................9
Language ..............................................................................................................................................12
Speech ..................................................................................................................................................13
Computer Vision ....................................................................................................................................14
Microsoft’s Cognitive Services .......................................................................................17
Vision ....................................................................................................................................................18
Speech ..................................................................................................................................................18
Language ..............................................................................................................................................19
Knowledge ............................................................................................................................................19
Search ..................................................................................................................................................20
Recap .............................................................................................................................21
vii
■ Contents
■ Chapter 2: Creating an AI-Based Application in Visual Studio ����������������������������23
Prerequisites for Using Cognitive Services ....................................................................24
Setting Up the Development Environment .....................................................................24
Getting an Azure Subscription Key for Cognitive Services .............................................24
Step 1: Set Up an Azure Account ..........................................................................................................25
Step 2: Create a New Cognitive Services Account ................................................................................27
Step 3: Get the Subscription Key(s) ......................................................................................................29
Testing the API ................................................................................................................30
What You Want To Do ............................................................................................................................31
How To Do It ..........................................................................................................................................31
Creating Your First AI-based Application ........................................................................33
The Code ...............................................................................................................................................34
The Walkthrough ...................................................................................................................................36
The Result .............................................................................................................................................38
Making Your Application More Interesting ......................................................................39
Extracting Text Out of Images ...............................................................................................................39
The Code ...............................................................................................................................................39
The Walkthrough ...................................................................................................................................41
The Result .............................................................................................................................................42
Recap .............................................................................................................................43
■ Chapter 3: Building a Conversational User Interface with
Microsoft Technologies����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������45
What Is a Conversational User Interface? ......................................................................47
A Brief History ................................................................................................................47
In the Very Beginning: the Command-Line Interface (CLI) ...................................................................47
And Then Came the Graphical User Interface .......................................................................................49
And UI Evolved Yet Again: Conversational User Interface .....................................................................51
AI’s Role in CUI ......................................................................................................................................52
Pitfalls of CUI ........................................................................................................................................53
A Hybrid UI (CUI+GUI) May Be the Future .............................................................................................55
viii
■ Contents
Design Principles ............................................................................................................57
Microsoft Bot Framework ...............................................................................................58
Creating a CUI Application Using Bot Framework ..........................................................58
Step 0: Prep Your Development Environment .......................................................................................59
Step 1: Create a New Bot Application Project .......................................................................................60
Step 2: First and Default Messages ......................................................................................................60
Step 3: Running, Testing, and Debugging Your Bot ...............................................................................62
Step 3: Appointment Scheduling ..........................................................................................................65
Step 4: Handling System Messages .....................................................................................................68
Next Steps ............................................................................................................................................68
Recap .............................................................................................................................69
■ Chapter 4: Using Natural Language Understanding ���������������������������������������������71
What Is NLU? ..................................................................................................................72
History of Natural Language Understanding ..................................................................74
Why Natural Language Is Difficult for Machines to Understand .....................................77
Complexities in Natural Language ........................................................................................................77
Statistical Models as a Solution Are Insufficient ..................................................................................79
A Promising Future ...............................................................................................................................80
Language Understanding Intelligent Service (LUIS) .......................................................80
Architecture of a LUIS-Based Software Application .............................................................................81
Behind the Scenes ................................................................................................................................84
Extensive Training Is the Key ................................................................................................................85
Getting an Azure Subscription for LUIS ..........................................................................86
Getting Subscription Keys on Azure Portal ...........................................................................................87
Applying Subscription Keys in LUIS ......................................................................................................88
Demo: Definition App ......................................................................................................89
Notes ....................................................................................................................................................91
Recap .............................................................................................................................92
ix
■ Contents
■ Chapter 5: Exploring a Cognitive Language Model ����������������������������������������������93
The Bing Spell Check API ...............................................................................................93
What Is It? .............................................................................................................................................95
How To Use It ........................................................................................................................................96
Integration with LUIS ............................................................................................................................99
The Text Analytics API ...................................................................................................101
Language Detection ............................................................................................................................102
Key Phrase Extraction .........................................................................................................................105
Sentiment Analysis .............................................................................................................................108
Topic Detection ...................................................................................................................................110
Usage Ideas ........................................................................................................................................113
The Web Language Model (WebLM) API .......................................................................114
Word Breaking ....................................................................................................................................116
Joint Probability ..................................................................................................................................117
Conditional Probability ........................................................................................................................119
Next Word Prediction ..........................................................................................................................120
The Linguistic Analysis API ...........................................................................................121
Sentence Separation and Tokenization ...............................................................................................122
Part-of-Speech Tagging ......................................................................................................................125
Constituency Parsing ..........................................................................................................................127
Recap ...........................................................................................................................130
■ Chapter 6: Consuming and Applying LUIS ���������������������������������������������������������131
Planning Your App ........................................................................................................131
What Should the Bot Be Able to Do? ...................................................................................................132
What Information Does the Bot Need from the User? .........................................................................132
What Should Be Done in LUIS? ...........................................................................................................132
What Should Be Done in the Bot Framework? ....................................................................................134
Creating a LUIS App ......................................................................................................134
Adding Intents ..............................................................................................................135
Adding/Labeling Utterances .........................................................................................135
x
■ Contents
Publishing Your App ......................................................................................................137
Adding Entities .............................................................................................................139
Simple Entities ....................................................................................................................................141
Composite Entities ..............................................................................................................................142
Hierachical Entities .............................................................................................................................145
Prebuilt Entities ..................................................................................................................................147
Adding a Phrase List ....................................................................................................149
Suggested Next Steps ..................................................................................................150
Active Learning Through Suggested Utterances ................................................................................150
Using LUIS Programmatic API for Automation ....................................................................................151
Integrating LUIS with the Bot Framework ....................................................................151
Creating a Project in Visual Studio......................................................................................................151
Handling an Entity-less Intent ............................................................................................................152
Setting Up Your Bot to Use HealthCheckupDialog ...............................................................................153
Testing the Bot in an Emulator ...........................................................................................................153
Handling an Entity-Full Intent .............................................................................................................154
Handling an Intent with Composite Entities ........................................................................................156
Handling the None Intent ....................................................................................................................158
Adding Your Bot to Skype .............................................................................................158
Publishing Your Bot .............................................................................................................................158
Registering Your Bot ...........................................................................................................................159
Recap ...........................................................................................................................160
■ Chapter 7: Interacting with the Speech API ������������������������������������������������������161
Ways to Interact with Speech .......................................................................................162
The Cognitive Search API ....................................................................................................................163
Speech Recognition ............................................................................................................................164
Getting Started .............................................................................................................164
Getting the JSON Web Token First ................................................................................164
The Consume Speech API .............................................................................................166
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