Children don’t have to be told that “cat” and “cats” are variants of the same word—they pick it up just by listening. To a computer, though, they’re as different as, well, cats and dogs. Yet it’s computers that are assumed to be superior in detecting patterns and rules, not 4-year olds. John Goldsmith, the Edward Carson Waller Distinguished Service Professor of Linguistics and Computer Science, and graduate student Jackson Lee are trying to, if...
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