This is a brief explanation about natural language processing software and how it can be found in daily life.
A number of business and science software programs out there employ natural language processing ("NLP") to manipulate text, images, or sounds. This technology allows you to find all the possible meanings, inferences, implications or associations that you could get out of a piece of text just by using your hands on the keyboard to type in words and phrases.
An example of NLP software is an iPad app called iQi Doctor, which identifies challenging words in texts you send it and then makes recommendations for a better word choice. A child's writing skills could be improved just by the child using a pen and tablet instead of writing on paper. Another point of interest is that such a program is already able to identify at some level the grammatical rules that govern our language; yet another application would be for helping people write better or more quickly, even as we speak or type what we mean.
The mind-blowing part of all this is that a single program can contain thousands or even millions of rules, and yet it can be useful when you type only one word.
Now, here are some examples of how NLP software is currently being used in daily life:
– In the medical field, doctors can look up a patient's records using their voice instead of manually scanning through pages and pages of documents. There's even a special virtual operating room that does surgery with just a spoken command.
– iphone users can use Siri on their phones (in certain countries) to talk over the phone instead of having to type in calls. No more writing down numbers when taking a conference call, just express your thoughts by speaking to Siri.
– The Star Tribune newspaper uses NLP software to help create better articles about local events by analyzing text and giving it tips and suggestions for how to write the article more effectively.
– In general, NLP software can be used to help people write better, or get rid of things that might be painful to write. For example, iphone users can delete unnecessary words from their texts and write more directly to the point, or use voice recognition software for removing the "impolite" words when talking on the phone.
Currently, artificial intelligence programs are being used in many different areas inside and outside of business, science and healthcare. The next stage of development is to make them more powerful in both the scope and complexity of their abilities.
Artificial intelligence is a vast area, and it's still far from where we can say it's the same intelligence as what a human has. But our world becomes more automated with every new product that includes AI technology. Whether we are aware of it or not, the way we interact with technology will be drastically changed over the next few decades.