Hey Computer! It’s time to leverage NLP more effectively to understand, analyse, and respond almost like humans!

By Prof Chetana Gavankar, Associate Professor, BITS Pilani Work Integrated Learning Programmes (WILP) Division

Natural Language Processing (NLP), a branch of artificial intelligence, is a groundbreaking discipline dedicated to deciphering, comprehending, and generating human languages. It transcends traditional programming paradigms by empowering machines to understand the complexities of human communication, including nuances, context, and ambiguity.

As we stride further into the digital age, the imperative for machines to interpret language with finesse similar to human understanding has never been more pronounced. With advancements in NLP, the aspiration for computers to not just understand, but also analyze and respond akin to human cognition is gradually
becoming a reality.

Do the computers understand human language?
Gone are the days when computers merely recognised keywords; today, they decipher intent, sentiment, and nuances within human language. However, there’s still a wide gulf between the way humans understand language and how machines process it. Humans effortlessly navigate the subtleties of context in language. We infer meaning from tone, word choice, and context. For computers to bridge this gap, NLP models need to grasp context in a more nuanced manner.

NLP models should aim to understand not only the literal meaning of words, but also the implied meaning, sarcasm, idioms, and other linguistic nuances. Human understanding relies on common knowledge and reasoning, which can be simulated in NLP models using knowledge graphs or incorporating external databases. NLP models need to be more transparent and explainable.

Humans understand concepts better when they follow the reasoning behind a decision. NLP systems need to emulate human understanding by integrating multiple modalities (text, images, audio, etc.) for a richer understanding of the content. The NLP system needs to ensure fairness, transparency, and accountability in the development and deployment of NLP models, thereby avoiding biases or discriminatory practices. Combining these strategies can help NLP models gain a more human-like understanding of language, taking into account context, semantics, reasoning, and the
subtleties of human communication.

Can computers respond like humans?
To respond like humans, computers must not only understand, but also analyze information effectively. For better analysis, the NLP system should enable human intervention in NLP Models’ decisions. Responding like humans involves swift and accurate responses. Real-time applications of NLP are emerging across industries. Customer service chatbots utilise NLP to understand user queries and provide relevant responses. However, the challenge lies in improving the conversational style and addressing complex queries adeptly.

How do we make computers respond like humans?
Creating an NLP model that responds like a human involves a blend of linguistics, psychology, machine learning, and continuous improvement through feedback loops. While achieving complete human-like responses is extremely challenging, advancements in NLP techniques continue to drive models closer to this goal. We need to develop robust models that understand not just the literal meaning, but also the context, sentiment, and intent behind user queries or statements. Techniques like contextual embedding, attention mechanisms, and pre-trained language models can help achieve this. The model needs to maintain context across a conversation or multiple interactions.

Memory and attention mechanisms can help NLP systems retain context and provide coherent responses, similar to how humans maintain continuity in conversations. Responses can be tailored to acknowledge and reflect appropriate emotional responses, enhancing the model’s human-like behavior. The algorithm design needs to create a natural conversational flow. Transitioning between topics, asking relevant follow-up questions, and generating contextually appropriate responses contribute to a more human-like interaction. Personalisation needs to be incorporated to tailor responses, based on individual preferences or past
interactions. This can involve analyzing user history and behavior to provide more customised and relevant answers. The NLP models need to be trained on diverse datasets to ensure sensitivity to various cultural contexts, languages, and expressions, reducing biases and ensuring inclusivity.

What are the cutting-edge trends in NLP?
The evolution of NLP has been driven by advancements in computational power, the availability of large-scale datasets, and innovations in machine learning and neural network architectures, leading to increasingly sophisticated and capable language understanding systems. Models like Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) and Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) have demonstrated significant advancements by pre-training on large text corpora and fine-tuning for specific NLP tasks.

Advancements in NLP aim to develop models capable of performing tasks without task-specific training data (zero-shot learning) or with very limited data (few-shot learning). Ethical NLP focuses on fairness, transparency, and unbiased models to ensure good AI practices. Researchers are working on developing models and techniques to address challenges in low-resource languages, as well as advancing multilingual NLP models that can effectively understand and generate content in multiple languages. Efforts are ongoing to develop NLP models that can learn continuously over time, adapting to new tasks or domains, without forgetting previously learned knowledge (catastrophic forgetting).

Enhancing the capabilities of chatbots, virtual assistants, and dialogue systems to hold more natural, context-aware, and engaging conversations remains an active area of research. Tailoring NLP models for specific domains, such as healthcare, finance, legal, and scientific literature, involves specialised language understanding and generation techniques, focusing on domain-specific jargon, context, and requirements.

The NLP Job market is quite promising!
As per the Fortune Business Insights report, the global Natural Language Processing (NLP) market size is projected to grow from $24.10 billion in 2023 to $112.28 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 24.6%. Job opportunities in NLP span across industries, such as technology, healthcare, finance, e-commerce, and customer service. Major players, such as Google, Amazon, HP, and IBM, have embarked on NLP-driven initiatives, unleashing a surge in job opportunities in this field. A few of the job profiles are:

 Data scientists – NLP focuses on analyzing and deriving insights from textual data like sentiment analysis and entity recognition.

 Computational linguists work on tasks, such as grammar modeling, semantic analysis, and developing linguistic resources for NLP systems.
 NLP research scientists conduct cutting-edge research, exploring new techniques, algorithms, and models.
 Software engineer – NLP Applications work on developing applications, such as chatbots, virtual assistants, and information retrieval systems.
 Data annotation specialists annotate and label large volumes of text data for training and testing NLP models.

 NLP consultant/advisor offer expertise and guidance to organizations looking to integrate NLP into their systems or improve existing NLP solutions

Some key points to leverage NLP effectively
NLP’s evolution marks a significant leap in machines emulating human language understanding. However, the journey towards machines responding almost like humans through NLP is still ongoing. Continuous innovation, ethical frameworks, and addressing limitations will pave the way for computers to navigate language intricacies more adeptly, making interactions between humans and machines seamless and natural.

As NLP progresses, ethical considerations become paramount. Bias in data, privacy concerns, and misuse of AI-powered language models are critical areas that need even more attention. As technology progresses, the synergy between human cognition and AI capabilities through NLP will undoubtedly redefine our digital landscape. The future certainly beckons machines to not just comprehend, but also to truly understand, analyze, and respond to human language, just like the way we do. Organisations, educational institutions, and working professionals will certainly play a key role, as they can work together to carve this exciting future ahead.