The Evolved Computer Computation, Language, and Computational Linguistics Alex Hauptmann School of Computer Science & Language Technologies Institute Carnegie Mellon University

Pop Quiz When you meet someone new, you draw many conclusions about them. What is the strongest clue about their intelligence? a)the gracefulness of their movements b)the way they smell c)how often they smile d)how fast they do math problems e)what they say and how they say it

Are Computers Intelligent? They cant read books. They can do arithmetic really fast. They cant answer questions too well. They can look for relevant web pages. –What about YouTube? Computers are extremely good at following some kinds of rules.

Recipes Giving directions to a computer is like writing a recipe - you need a lot of detail.

Computer Science What kinds of recipes are computers good at following? What kinds of problems can be turned into easy for computers recipes? –Intelligence? –Security and privacy? –Can computers work together on a recipe? How can we make it easy for people to write useful recipes? How fast can computers follow a particular kind of recipe? Is there a way to describe recipes mathematically? As with most sciences, there are theoretical and applied parts.

Two Secrets Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. - E. Dijkstra, great computer scientist Programming = the highly useful craft of writing good recipes for a computer.

Computational Linguistics Which human language abilities are easy-for-computers? easy for computers language tasks What easy-for-computers language abilities are useful for humans? hard/tedious for people to do

In the next three slides, youll see examples of some of the problems in CL.

Where are the words? 217A(III) , OnDecember10,1948theGeneralAssemblyoftheUnitedNati onsadoptedandproclaimedtheUniversalDeclarationofHum anRightsthefulltextofwhichappearsinthefollowingpages.Fol lowingthishistoricacttheAssemblycalleduponallMembercou ntriestopublicizethetextoftheDeclarationandtocauseittobedi sseminated,displayed,readandexpoundedprincipallyinscho olsandothereducationalinstitutions,withoutdistinctionbased onthepoliticalstatusofcountriesorterritories.

Where are the morphemes? İnsan hakları evrensel beyannamesi Önsöz İnsanlık ailesinin bütün üyelerinde bulunan haysiyetin ve bunların eşit ve devir kabul etmez haklarının tanınması hususunun, hürriyetin, adaletin ve dünya barışının temeli olmasına, İnsan haklarının tanınmaması ve hor görülmesinin insanlık vicdanını isyana sevkeden vahşiliklere sebep olmuş bulunmasına, dehşetten ve yoksulluktan kurtulmuş insanların, içinde söz ve inanma hürriyetlerine sahip olacakları bir dünyanın kurulması en yüksek amaçları oralak ilan edilmiş bulunmasına, On December 10, 1948 theGeneralAssembly of theUnitedNations adopted and proclaimed theUniversalDeclaration of HumanRights thefulltext of which appears in thefollowingpages. Following thishistoricact theAssembly called upon allMembercountries topublicize the text of theDeclaration and to cause it tobedisseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educationalinstitutions, without distinction based on thepoliticalstatus of countries or territories.

Which words are these? (1) n dcmbr 10, 1948 th gnrl ssmbly f th ntd ntns dptd nd prclmd th nvrsl dclrtn f hmn rghts th fll txt f whch pprs n th fllwng pgs (أ) (أ) اعتُمد بموجب قرار الجمعية العامة 217 ألف (د-3) المؤرخ في 10 كانون الأول / ديسمبر 1948

Ambiguity in English IRAQI HEAD SEEKS ARMS KIDS MAKE NUTRITIOUS SNACKS BRITISH LEFT WAFFLES ON FALKLAND ISLANDS STOLEN PAINTING FOUND BY BUSH

Have you ever … Talked to a computer program on the phone? Encountered a chat bot? Used translation software for your Spanish homework? Taken an essay exam that was graded by a computer? How was that experience?

Handwriting Puzzle A student excuse for class, after bad automatic handwriting recognition: lie charm code soil rout wake he us this moving my solemn circle did hot make I'll is taxis having guy clam shute raid riot sale me ugh thai running bye beam clock risk not wane be up tear morning alarm visit must see loving What kind of recipe for a computer could prevent this mistake?

Speech Recognition Puzzle True example of computer speech recognition: It is hard to wreck a nice beach What was really said? It is hard to recognize speech What kind of recipe for a computer could prevent this mistake? Ice cream I scream

Technology: Can a computer program … Find relevant web pages? Transcribe speech? Check your spelling? Recommend books, CDs, movies? ?Filter spam or classify ? ?Answer trivia questions? ?Translate the newspaper? ?Summarize todays news? ?Watch a game and TV and know the score? ?Scan a printed page into electronic text? ?Read a story naturally, out loud? ?Carry on an interesting conversation? ?Tutor a student in a school subject? ?Grade an essay or book report?

Science, Humanities, Society: Can computers help us to … Save a language from becoming extinct? Help linguists study language more thoroughly and easily? Build tools for literary or other scholars (e.g., concordances) Study language evolution over time? Make communication easier for the disabled? Understand and model human cognition and learning? Prevent terrorist attacks? Increase communication and understanding across cultures Predict natural disasters? Find cures for diseases?* *Surprising connection: many techniques from CL are now used in computational biology!

Phonebook Challenge Some words in your dictionary also appear as last names in your phone book. For example, brooks", brown", butler", hall", and wright" are in your dictionary, and Brooks, Brown, Butler, Hall, and Wright are all common last names in the U.S. You would like to make a list of all such words. The inefficient way would be to go through the dictionary in order: for each dictionary word, you open the phone book, look up that word, add it to your list if you find it as a last name, and close the phone book again. (a)Why is it more efficient to keep the phone book open between word lookups? (b) What if you have a friend to help you (and two copies of the dictionary and phone book)? How can the two of you divide up the work safely and finish twice as fast? (c) What if there are three of you instead of two?

Computational Linguistics Olympiad Challenge Puzzle Day McConomy Auditorium –and about 11 other places nationwide Final Challenge –3/11/2007 also at CMU Training Camp/Summer Practice International CL Olympics –Late July in Bulgaria –National Team Competition –US Team won last year + best individual Was this just luck?

Thanks! Questions: