The Evolved Computer Computation, Language, and Computational Linguistics

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The Evolved ComputerComputation, Language, and
Computational Linguistics

• Alex Hauptmann
• School of Computer Science Language
  Technologies Institute
• Carnegie Mellon University
• alex_at_cs.cmu.edu

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Pop Quiz

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

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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.

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(No Transcript)
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Search Pwned?
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Recipes

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

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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.

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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.
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Computational Linguistics

• Which human language abilities are
• easy-for-computers?

language tasks
easy for computers
hard/tedious for people to do
What easy-for-computers language abilities are
useful for humans?
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• In the next three slides, youll see examples of
  some of the problems in CL.

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Where are the words?
?????? ????????????????217A(III)???????? 1948 ?
12 ? 10 ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ?, ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? , ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ?? ? ? ? ? ?? ? ? ?
? ? ? ? ? OnDecember10,1948theGeneralAssemblyofth
eUnitedNationsadoptedandproclaimedtheUniversalDecl
arationofHumanRightsthefulltextofwhichappearsinthe
followingpages.FollowingthishistoricacttheAssembly
calleduponallMembercountriestopublicizethetextofth
eDeclarationandtocauseittobedisseminated,displayed
,readandexpoundedprincipallyinschoolsandothereduca
tionalinstitutions,withoutdistinctionbasedonthepol
iticalstatusofcountriesorterritories.
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Where are the morphemes?
Insan haklari evrensel beyannamesi Önsöz Insanlik
ailesinin bütün üyelerinde bulunan haysiyetin ve
bunlarin esit ve devir kabul etmez haklarinin
taninmasi hususunun, hürriyetin, adaletin ve
dünya barisinin temeli olmasina, Insan haklarinin
taninmamasi ve hor görülmesinin insanlik
vicdanini isyana sevkeden vahsiliklere sebep
olmus bulunmasina, dehsetten ve yoksulluktan
kurtulmus insanlarin, içinde söz ve inanma
hürriyetlerine sahip olacaklari bir dünyanin
kurulmasi en yüksek amaçlari oralak ilan edilmis
bulunmasina, 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.
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Which words are these?
(?) ?????? ????? ???? ??????? ?????? 217 ???
(?-3) ?????? ?? 10 ????? ????? / ?????? 1948
(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
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Ambiguity in English

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

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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?

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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?
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Speech Recognition Puzzle
Ice cream ltgt I scream

• 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?
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Technology Can a computer program

• Find relevant web pages?
• Transcribe speech?
• Check your spelling?
• Recommend books, CDs, movies?
• Filter spam or classify email?
• 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?

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Science, Humanities, SocietyCan 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!

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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.
• 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?

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Computational Linguistics Olympiadwww.naclo.cs.cm
u.edu

• Challenge Puzzle Day
• 2/5/2007 _at_CMU 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?

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Thanks!

• Questions alex_at_cs.cmu.edu