Natural Language Processing
Natural language processing is a subfield of AI that aims to develop systems that can analyse and communicate through human language. Sound easy? If so, it’s only because you’re reading these words with a mind endowed by evolution with the gift of language.
Algorithms aren’t so lucky. They have trouble parsing the eclectic hodgepodge of symbols, gestures, sounds, and cultural cues that we use to express meaning and ideas.
“There’s an obvious problem with applying deep learning to language. It’s that words are arbitrary symbols, and as such they are fundamentally different from imagery. Two words can be similar in meaning while containing completely different letters, for instance; and the same word can mean various things in different contexts,” writes Will Knight for MIT Technology Review.
When algorithms finally crack language, the business
use cases will be substantial. Think chatbots, virtual editors, market
analysis, instant translation of live conversations, resume readers, and phone
auto-attendants that don’t send every caller into a rage.