Natural Language Processing

There have been high hopes for Natural Language Processing. Natural Language Processing, also known simply as NLP, is part of the broader field of Artificial Intelligence, the effort towards making machines think. Computers may appear intelligent as they crunch numbers and process information with blazing speed. In truth, computers are nothing but dumb slaves who only understand on or off and are limited to exact instructions. But since the invention of the computer, scientists have …

…a following sentence beginning with 'He' as 'the boy.' (G. McWilliams, 1993)         In the 1950s, Noam Chomsky believed that NLP consisted only of syntax. With MARGIE, Roger Schank added semantics. By 1975, Robert Wilensky's PAM could handle pragmatics, too. And as Joe Weizenbaum did with ELIZA in 1958, over 35 years later IBM is adding tricks to its NLP programs. Natural Language Processing has had many successes - and many failures. How well can a computer understand us?