13.5 Natural-Language Processing
In a science fiction movie, it’s not uncommon to have a human interact with a computer by simply talking to it. The captain of a spaceship might say, “Computer, what is the nearest starbase with medical facilities sufficient to handle Laharman’s syndrome?” The computer might then respond, “Starbase 42 is 14.7 light-years away and has the necessary facilities.”
How far is this science fiction from science fact? Ignoring space travel and advanced medicine for now, why don’t we interact with computers just by talking to them? To a limited extent, we can. We don’t tend to have free-flowing verbal conversations yet, but we’ve certainly made headway. Some computers can be set up to respond to specific verbal commands. ...
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