Speak, Machine!

Don’t you think that the most disappointing things about computers is that they aren’t human enough? And those speech programs—bleh! By now, we’re all familiar with the way computers speak, and we, the people, demand better! Thankfully, scientists are on the case. And Dr. Michael Wagner, a researcher in McGill University’s Department of Linguistics, is using poetry to make the dream come true. Apparently, the difficulty of teaching computers how to speak lies in reflecting the complex emphasis speakers of different languages put on their words. Newswire reports:

A first step to understanding this complexity is to gain better knowledge of how we decide where to put emphasis. This is where poetry comes into play. Wagner has looked at prosody, which means the rhythm, stress and intonation of speech. Poetry relies heavily on prosody, and by making a comparison between languages, he is able to uncover how prosody functions differently in English and French.

Finally, you can prove to your family that poetry is good for something!