Can Machines Understand Language?

According to John Searle, this is fundamentally impossible. He used the Chinese Room thought-experiment to demonstrate that computers follow instructions to manipulate symbols without understanding of these symbols. William van Orman Quine even questioned the understanding of language by humans, since symbols are only grounded through approximation by cultural situational convention. READ MORE

— 1st VU-Spinoza Workshop ULM-1

ULM-1: The borders of ambiguity. Presentation by: dr. Rubén Izquierdo Beviá & Marten Postma, MA. Understanding language by machines 1 1st VU-Spinoza workshop October 17th 2014 View/download presentation by dr. Rubén Izquierdo Beviá & Marten Postma, MA ULM-1: The borders of ambiguity (pdf) Rubén Izquierdo Beviá: “Context modelling. Our first approach to our Next Context READ MORE

— 1st VU-Spinoza Workshop ULM-2

ULM-2: Word, concept, perception and brain. Presentation by: Emiel van Miltenburg, MA & Alessandro Lopopolo, MA. Understanding language by machines 2 1st VU-Spinoza workshop October 17th 2014 View/download presentation by Emiel van Miltenburg, MA & Alessandro Lopopolo, MA ULM-2: Word, concept, perception and brain (pdf) Alessandro Lopopolo: “Semantics in the brain. Modal areas. The point READ MORE

— 1st VU-Spinoza Workshop ULM-3

ULM-3: Stories and world views as a key to understanding language. Presentation by: dr. Tommaso Caselli & dr. Roser Morante Vallejo. Understanding language by machines 3 1st VU-Spinoza workshop October 17th 2014 View/download presentation by dr. Tommaso Caselli & dr. Roser Morante Vallejo ULM-3: Stories and world views as a key to understanding language (pdf) READ MORE

— 1st VU-Spinoza Workshop ULM-4

ULM-4: A quantum model of text understanding. Presentation by: Minh Ngoc Lê, MSc & Filip Ilievski, Student assistant. Understanding language by machines 4 1st VU-Spinoza workshop October 17th 2014 View/download presentation by Minh Ngoc Lê, MSc & Filip Ilievski, Student assistant ULM-4: A quantum model of text understanding (pdf) Filip Ilievski: “Ontology-based reasoning. Spot redundancies/wrong READ MORE