Speaking the language of machines

Abstract

Machine learning today means that, if given appropriate architecture, a machine can absorb and store information by itself. Amid the buzz around artificial intelligence (AI), Dr Claudia Borg, a Maltese morphology (word formation) expert, decided to find ways for utilising AI for language processing — a subfield focusing on programming computers to analyse natural language data. It led her to the contested topic of how users’ bias affects software development. Borg is happy to shatter the image of AI researchers as IT-obsessed prodigies. She tells me about being considered a slow learner as a child, late in learning to read and write, receiving bad marks, and failing exams in several subjects. Her school results started improving at the age of 12, with extracurricular help. She did not consider herself a highachiever at that age, and struggled to discover what motivates her after graduation. ‘I would jump from job to job because I found them boring. For example, I have done the accounts of a company for this year, the next year I will do the same.