Text classification with evolving label-sets

Abstract

We introduce the evolving label-set problem encountered in building real-world text classification systems. This problem arises when a text classification system trained on a label-set encounters documents of unseen classes at deployment time. We design a Class-Detector module that monitors unlabeled data, detects new classes, and suggests them to the administrator for inclusion in the label-set. We propose abstractions that group together tokens under human understandable concepts and provide a mechanism of assigning importance to unseen terms. We present generative algorithms leveraging the notion of support of documents in a model for (1) selecting documents of proposed new classes, and (2) automatically triggering detection of new classes. Experiments on three real world taxonomies show that our methods select new class documents with high precision, and trigger emergence of new classes with low false-positive and false-negative rates. © 2005 IEEE.