arXiv:2601.08109cs.DBcs.AI2026-01

将文档自动转为可问‘为什么’的因果数据库,支持大规模因果分析。

CSQL: Mapping Documents into Causal Databases

  • 通过解析文本中的因果论述,构建可查询的因果数据库。
  • 在经济论文数据集上构建包含26万条因果主张的数据库,覆盖45000篇论文。
  • 适合需要做因果推断的科研、政策分析与跨领域研究者。

我们提出一种新系统CSQL,可将大量非结构化文本自动转换为可执行SQL查询的因果数据库(CDB)。与传统数据库不同,CDB专为回答“为什么”类问题设计,支持因果干预和结构化因果查询。CSQL基于先前的DEMOCRITUS系统,从因果话语中提取数千个局部因果模型。区别于RAG或知识图谱方法,CSQL支持对文档集合进行因果分析而非仅关联检索。例如,在一篇关于人类双足行走起源的文章中,可查询“对双足行走影响最强的因素是什么?”或“哪些变量是下游影响最大的因果枢纽?”。我们进一步将经济论文中的测试因果主张(TCC)数据集编译成一个因果数据库,涵盖265,656个因果主张实例,来自45,319篇论文、44年时间跨度及1,575种报告的方法字符串,实现全语料库层面的因果查询与纵向分析。抽象来看,CSQL如同一个从非结构化文档到因果数据库的编译器,具备严谨的查询代数,适用于商业、人文与科学等多个领域。

原文摘要 · Abstract (English)

We describe a novel system, CSQL, which automatically converts a collection of unstructured text documents into an SQL-queryable causal database (CDB). A CDB differs from a traditional DB: it is designed to answer "why'' questions via causal interventions and structured causal queries. CSQL builds on our earlier system, DEMOCRITUS, which converts documents into thousands of local causal models derived from causal discourse. Unlike RAG-based systems or knowledge-graph based approaches, CSQL supports causal analysis over document collections rather than purely associative retrieval. For example, given an article on the origins of human bipedal walking, CSQL enables queries such as: "What are the strongest causal influences on bipedalism?'' or "Which variables act as causal hubs with the largest downstream influence?'' Beyond single-document case studies, we show that CSQL can also ingest RAG/IE-compiled causal corpora at scale by compiling the Testing Causal Claims (TCC) dataset of economics papers into a causal database containing 265,656 claim instances spanning 45,319 papers, 44 years, and 1,575 reported method strings, thereby enabling corpus-level causal queries and longitudinal analyses in CSQL. Viewed abstractly, CSQL functions as a compiler from unstructured documents into a causal database equipped with a principled algebra of queries, and can be applied broadly across many domains ranging from business, humanities, and science.

因果推理文本挖掘数据库自然语言处理

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