Parsing Flight Searches Using GPT-3

Experimenting with GPT-3 this week has been a lot of fun, and startling at times.  In addition to quick experiments, I wanted to see what it would be like to try building something "real".

Let's say we're working for an airline, and they'd like their website's search box to be able to handle searches like "flight from Toronto to Orlando on September 9 for under $300", giving the appropriate search results.

Our goal is to convert that to the following Wolfram Language representation:

<|
    "Input" -> "flight from Toronto to Orlando on September 9 for under $300",
    "Expression" -> Entity[
        "Flight",
        <|
            "From" -> Entity["City", {"Toronto", "Ontario", "Canada"}],
            "To" -> Entity["City", {"Orlando", "Florida", "UnitedStates"}],
            "When" -> DateObject[{2020, 9, 9}, "Day", "Gregorian"],
            "Price" -> LessThan[Quantity[300, "USDollars"]]
        |>
    ]

|>

The part we'll use GPT-3 for is to convert the search string to the following:

 

Entity[
    "Flights",
    {
        "Price" -> "Under $300",
        "From" -> "Toronto",
        "To" -> "Orlando",
        "When" -> "September 9"
    }

]

Once we have that, we can use the Interpreter function in Wolfram Language to convert things like "Toronto" to a fully resolved reference like Entity["City", {"Toronto", "Ontario", "Canada"}].

To "train" GPT-3 to do the mapping, we'll include a long preamble with all of our API requests, consisting of examples. For example, to parse the above search string, we'll send the following to GPT-3, where the red text indicates the search string we'd like parsed, and the highlighted text indicates what GPT-3 returns to us:

Phrase: flights from Toronto to Orlando

Object: flights

Descriptors: {from Toronto, to Orlando}

Attributes: {origin, destination}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"From" -> "Toronto", "To" -> "Orlando"}]

"""

Phrase: first class flights from Vancouver to Tokyo on July 18

Object: flights

Descriptors: {first class, from Vancouver, to Tokyo, on July 18}

Attributes: {class, origin, destination, date}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"Class" -> "First", "From" -> "Vancouver", "To " -> "Tokyo", "Date " -> "July 18"}]

"""

Phrase: from Shanghai to Dubai on the evening of September 22, window seat

Object: flights

Descriptors: {from Shanghai, to Dubai, on the evening of September 22, window seat}

Attributes: {origin, destination, when, seat column}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"From" -> "Shanghai", "To" -> "Dubai", "When" -> "Evening of September 22", "SeatColumn" -> "Window"}]

"""

Phrase: isle seat for flight from Buffalo New York to Miami Florida next Thursday

Object: flights

Descriptors: {isle seat, from Buffalo New York, to Miami Florida, next Thursday}

Attributes: {seat column, origin, destination, when}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"SeatColumn" -> "Isle", "From" -> "Buffalo New York", "To" -> "Miami Florida", "When" -> "Next Thursday "}]

"""

Phrase: cheap flights to orlando in February

Object: flights

Descriptors: {cheap, to orlando, in February}

Attributes: {price, destination, when}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"Price" -> "Cheap", "To" -> "Orlando", "When" -> "in February"}]

"""

Phrase: book a flight to rome this Saturday, departing between 9 AM and 11 AM

Object: flights

Descriptors: {to rome, this Saturday, departing between 9 AM and 11 AM}

Attributes: {origin, destination, when, when}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"Destination" -> "Rome", "When" -> {"this Saturday", "departing between 9 AM and 11 AM"}}]

"""

Phrase: red eye back to Boston tomorrow night

Object: flights

Descriptors: {red eye, back to Boston, tomorrow night}

Attributes: {when, destination, when}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"Destination" -> "Boston", "When" -> {"red eye", "tomorrow night"}}]

"""

Phrase: flight from Toronto to Orlando on September 9 for under $300

Object: flights

Descriptors: {from Toronto, to Orlando, on September 9, for under $300}

Attributes: {price, origin, destination, date}

Representation: Entity["Flights", {"Price" -> "Under $300", "From" -> "Toronto", "To" -> "Orlando", "When" -> "September 9"}]