Introduction to Modern Natural Language Processing

This lecture provides an introduction to the course CS-552: Modern Natural Language Processing. It outlines the significance of natural language processing (NLP) in enabling human-machine collaboration and enhancing communication. The instructor discusses various applications of NLP, including search engines, dialogue agents, text generation, machine translation, and sentiment analysis. The lecture emphasizes the challenges of NLP, particularly the complexities of language ambiguity and the evolution of language over time. The instructor highlights the advancements in NLP technologies, particularly the growth in model sizes and capabilities, which have led to significant improvements in tasks such as machine translation and text generation. The course structure is also introduced, detailing the topics to be covered in subsequent weeks, including neural word embeddings, recurrent neural networks, and transformers. The instructor encourages students to engage with the material and prepares them for the practical applications of NLP technologies throughout the semester.