Technology Opportunity Discovery Based on Biterm Topic Model and Explainable Artificial Intelligence Model

This article discusses the approach of employing biterm topic model (BTM) and explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) framework to dissect technological opportunities. Technology opportunity discovery (TOD) refers to the analytical process of identifying potential technology themes based on scientific and technological data and analysis methodologies. As samples for analysis, 10579 patents related to lithium-ion battery research applied in the past three years are collected. The Derwent titles of patents are processed by BTM to accurately extract technology topics from short texts and to reduce dimensions of classification models’ inputs. Six distinct types of machine learning algorithms have been deployed to categorize patent documents. The main driving features, that is, technology topics crucial for patent authorization, are derived from the model with optimal classification outcomes using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). Technology opportunities are defined as these main driving features. Three kinds of technology opportunities about field of lithium-ion battery are discovered by the proposed approach.