AI's Next Great Challenge: Understanding the Nuances of Language

Language is a uniquely human capability and the manifestation of our intelligence. But through AI -- specifically natural language processing (NLP) -- we are providing machines with language capabilities, opening up a new realm of possibilities for how we'll work with them. Today you can walk into a darkened living room and ask Alexa to turn the smart lights up to a pleasant 75% brightness. Or, you can summon information about weather conditions on the other side of the world. The progress the industry has made was on display in Google's recent demo of Duplex, in which an AI agent called businesses and booked appointments.