The role of language in the development of AI systems

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,0, University of Kassel, course: English and American Culture and Business Studies, language: English, abstract: AI is a fascinating topic that not only baffled but also inspired the minds of philosophers, scientists, technicians, and even movie-makers. Humans are intrigued by the topic, because the investigation of AI allows people to decipher the complexity of their own minds. By trying to create AI systems people create an insight into human intelligence as well as are able to understand the world that is surrounding them. New technologies enhance the possibilities to further meet human demands concerning computational systems. This reflects the ability of the systems to understand and analyze unstructured text. The largest part of information available is written in unstructured natural language. AI systems can be used to make different types of information available for present day demands.

Thoroughly examining Watson will reveal the similarities and differences of the way humans and computational systems understand natural language. This will create insight into the potential and further development of the AI systems. Natural language processing systems have a broad field of applications. The demand of these systems becomes instantly apparent, when investigating various industries such as financial services, call centers, and the medical industry.

Nevertheless, Watson is not the only research program that will influence the future of society. Various smaller software programs will benefit and advance the current development. Also, knowledge representation will have an impact in areas such as the World Wide Web.

One important aspect that should be considered when analyzing projects like Watson is the opportunities that arise with it. In the Art of War, Sun Tzu states: ¿Know thine enemy better than one knows thyself¿. Investigating the Jeopardy! challenge characterizes the battle between man and machine. This leads to the conclusion that understanding Watson allows to look at aspects of human intelligence that are still unraveled.