Descartes famously said “Cogito Ergo Sum”, and in doing so, posited that human thought is the ultimate proof that Reality exists. Who knows if there’s something out there beyond our ability to perceive things and make sense of them through language.
In the tech age, computers have gotten pretty good at understanding human language and speech. Yet, they sometimes miss the deeper nuances of language beyond the sounds of our words. Indeed, in human communication, associations and context matter as much as the words themselves.Take for example:
Jaguar: car or animal?
Apple: the fruit or the company?
A truly intelligent computer would understand you are talking about Apple (the company) when you say “my apple has a really fast processor!”. Language, and neural symphony beneath it, is tied tightly to the very nature of human intelligence. As such, it holds to key to AI’s understanding of how to be more human. It turns out, an Italian company is a central innovator in this fascinating technological space.
Expert System is a Modena-based Italian company – with new offices just opened in Menlo Park – that is at the forefront of semantic technology, allowing computers to better understand the associative nature of human language. Expert System’s core technology, nicknamed Cogito, deeplyunderstands text and finds relationships between human words that have long remained hidden to computers. They contend that the disambiguation of terms is the secret behind semantic intelligence.
With a client portfolio of global leaders in industries as varied as banking, publishing and telecommunications, Expert System is well positioned to ride the semantic technology wave that is changing the way computers understand humans. Meet their team here. Request a company profile here. Go visit them in Menlo Park. They’re worth a look; very cool technology.