On 10/19/06, Richard Loosemore <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Sorry, but IMO large databases, fast hardware, and cheap memory ain't got nothing to do with it. Anyone who doubts this get a copy of Pim Levelt's "Speaking", read and digest the whole thing, and then meditate on the fact that that book is a mere scratch on the surface (IMO a scratch in the wrong direction, too, but that's neither here nor there). I saw a recent talk about an NLP system which left me stupified that so little progress has been made since 20 years ago. Having a clue about just what a complex thing intelligence is, has everything to do with it.
Most normal speaking requires relatively little 'intelligence'. Adults who take young children on foreign holidays are amazed at how quickly the children appear to be chattering away to other children in a foreign language. They manage it for several reasons: 1) they don't have the other interests and priorities that adults have. 2) they use simple sentence structures and smallish vocabularies. 3) they discuss simple subjects of interest to children. The new IBM MASTOR system seems to be better than Babelfish. IBM are just starting on widespread commercial marketing of the system. Aiming at business travellers, apparently. MASTOR project description <http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/research.nsf/pages/r.uit.innovation.html> Here is a pdf file describing the MASTOR system in more detail <http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/W/W06/W06-3711.pdf> Here is a 12MB mpg download of the system in use. Simple speech, but impressive. <http://www.research.ibm.com/jam/speech_to_speech.mpg> BillK ----- This list is sponsored by AGIRI: http://www.agiri.org/email To unsubscribe or change your options, please go to: http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
