Four deep learning trends from ACL 2017

"NLP is booming", declared Joakim Nivre at the presidential address of ACL 2017, which I attended in Vancouver earlier this month. As evidenced by the throngs of attendees, interest in NLP is at an all-time high – an increase that is chiefly due to the successes of the deep learning renaissance, which recently swept like a tidal wave over the field. Beneath the optimism however, I noticed a tangible anxiety at ACL, as one field adjusts to its rapid transformation by another. Researchers asked whether there is anything of the old NLP left – or was it all swept away by the tidal wave? Are neural networks the only technique we need any more?