The short of it is this: LaMDA is able to talk like a human, because that’s what it was designed to do. But that’s also why AI specialists are confident that it is nowhere near attaining any level of consciousness.
But what is it that makes AI machines like LaMDA tick? Are we entering an unprecedented era that takes our reality closer and closer to sci-fi representations of AI?
What is natural language processing (NLP)?
LaMDA is the product of painstaking years of research in bolivia mobile database a major branch of AI called natural language processing, or NLP.
The objective of NLP is to allow computers to “understand” natural human language—that is, language as it is commonly used by people—and to act on it in an appropriate manner.
This means that we are able to use and interact with computer programs without having to learn code, and computers are able to respond to our input with the same kind of language we use.
You might be familiar with the concept in the form of virtual assistants like Siri or Alexa, which use speech-to-text technology to process a wide variety of requests from playing songs to noting down appointments in your calendar.
Of course, that’s not all that NLP can do. Natural language processing has a wide range of applications today, some of which can be startling to someone unfamiliar with the current state of AI. Examples include summarizing long texts, drafting emails, and even writing short stories based on prompts!