Technology has been our faithful ally in this constant chase of evolution over the past century. We learnt, discovered, invented, improvised and moved forward. We continue to do so even now. After all, our insatiable thirst for betterment is what separates us from wildlife. The most recent and probably the biggest technological development of this decade was the emergence & application of AI. It’s still a fairly new concept, but it already has taken over the internet. Artificial intelligence is a simulation of human intelligence. It is developed to assist us in various tasks. To achieve that, AI deploys a variety of elements responsible for giving AI the huge functionality it holds. Our topic for discussion today is one such element. In this article, we’ll delve deeper into the understanding of Natural Language Processing, and tools developed around it. Abbreviated as NLP, it’s an essential & interesting branch of AI.
As far as the definition of Natural Language Processing or NLP is considered, it is quite a simple one. NLP is the branch of AI dealing with the understanding of human speech & is responsible for generating responses to it. The ‘understanding’ of human speech it aims to achieve comprises both textual and vocal formats. All of us have used NLP or NLP tools with or without being aware of it. Assistants in our smartphones, like Siri or Google Assistant, are a common example of Natural Language Processing and its applications. Some other examples include voice activated home solutions, GPS, and devices supporting text-to-speech or vice versa. Now one may wonder, what an NLP is in the first place? Or how did it come to be? Have we seen all there’s to it? We’ll tackle all of those questions in this article. Let’s begin right away & learn more about NLPs.
Natural Processing Language Tools: A Preface
To understand the applications, viability and relevance of an element, it’s essential to understand the purpose of its existence/origin. What is a Natural Processing Language and what are NLP Tools? What purpose do NLP and NLP Tools serve? Do we really need them? We’ll be dealing with all those questions in this section of the article. This will help us form a better understanding of NLP, its usage and its impact.
The Origin Of NLP and NLP Tools
The field of NLP is believed to have originated after World War II. What was the exact or precise cause? It stays unknown. However, we have an estimate of what led to the idea of having a machine capable of understanding human speech. Language and its translation was a hot topic in the 1940s. We believe it to be the causal factor behind the ideation of NLPs. Gradually, the idea was accepted and caught the interest of many. It wouldn’t be an understatement to say that rest is history. We now stand in an era where NLPs and NLP tools are widely deployed. The present concept of Natural Language Processing is not wrong when we compare it to that of the 1940s. However, it sure is much bigger & more complicated. Worry not, for we’ll now break it down in simple manner, giving you a well informed idea of an NLP.
NLP is a part of AI, developed for understanding human speech & generating appropriate responses to it. Various computer software have it integrated and it has a variety of applications in present times. The concept of Natural Language Processing carries numerous questions with itself. One of them is ‘How does NLP deal with the ambiguity of human speech?’ NLP deploys a number of processes/tasks to break down human speech in parts & proceeds to analyze all of it. Dealing one by one with each fragmented part of a human speech, NLP uses its understanding to generate suitable responses as well. These responses can be vocal or in the form of a text. The ‘tasks’ NLP deploys to understand human speech are vital, and hold the key to our deeper understanding of them.
Deeper Insight: How do NLP Tools Work?
In the above section, we discussed some ‘certain’ tasks used by NLP to understand human speech & deal with it. In this section, we’ll be learning more about them. Although there are over 5-6 steps NLP uses to break down human speech, some of them evidently carry more value. Speech Recognition, Sentiment Analysis, Natural Language Generation and word sense disambiguation are some of them.
Speech Recognition Tools
NLP deals with vocal commands using ‘Speech Recognition. We are quite familiar with its applications. Speech Recognition is deployed by tools and platforms working with voice commands and/or generating answers to vocal questions.
Sentiment Analysis Tools
Sentiment Analysis is yet another crucial part of Natural Language Processing. As the name suggests, it is the step where NLP attempts to understand the mood and emotions of a person. Understanding the state of mind of a person via their textual/vocal prompt has caused NLP to grow exponentially. It analyzes the tone of a vocal command and the vocabulary of a textual command to predict state of mind.
Natural Language Generation Tools
Natural Language Generation is quite simple, and at the same time quite important as well. As the name speaks for this one too, it is the generation of a ‘natural’ language. A natural language differs from a computer generated language. NLP abandons technically stoic terminology and stops strictly following rules. It emphasizes on generating a ‘natural’ language, just like any human being would use to communicate. AI powered Chatbots use it to converse contextually and generate human-like responses. Isn’t that mind blowing?
These steps along with many others are responsible for fragmented analysis of human speech. Some of them have independent and individual applications as well.
Applications of NLP
You might have already figured out some common applications of NLP and its steps. Almost every smartphone out there uses Speech Recognition. It is one of the many features that makes them ‘smart’. Sentiment Analysis is used to understand the subjective nature of human speech. Various AI platforms use it for multiple purposes. They include AI chatbots, AI fueled customer support services and much more. Natural Language Generation is what countless AI tools rely on to generate texts/responses/content in a natural, human-like language.
Final Thoughts
Natural Language Processing is a technology of the future, but that doesn’t mean we presently have no use for it. How it works and understands human speech hints directly at its applications.AI tools ruling the internet today stand where they are because of NLP. Its thorough, step by step analysis of human speech has helped AI platforms grow marginally. By having the ability to hold conversations, generate content & responses, AI has become the leading element of the internet today. Most of its credit goes to Natural Language Processing and its development. In this article, we dived deeper into NLP, its understanding and its applications. With that being said, we’ll now wrap this article up in hopes that it was of help to you.