Natural Language Processing (NLP) Link to heading
What is NLP? Link to heading
NLP (Natural Language Processing) is the field focused on enabling machines to understand, interpret, and generate human language.
NLP consists of a collection of algorithms / techniques / tasks which lets machines work with human language.
Core Techniques (Building Blocks of NLP) Link to heading
These are the methods that prepare and represent text so that the NLP models can work with the text effectively:
- Tokenization: splitting text into words, sub-words, or characters.
- Embeddings: representing words/sentences as numerical vectors in a semantic space.
- Parsing: analyzing grammar and sentence structure.
- Language Modeling: predicting the next word or sequence of words.
Common Tasks (Applications of NLP) Link to heading
These are problems NLP systems solve using the NLP Core Techniques:
- Text Classification: e.g., spam vs. not spam
- Sentiment Analysis: detecting emotion (positive/negative/neutral)
- Named Entity Recognition (NER): finding people, places, or organizations in text
- Machine Translation: e.g., translating English <-> Spanish
- Question Answering: “What is the capital of Spain?” -> “Madrid”
LLMs in NLP Link to heading
LLMs are a type of NLP model, built using deep learning architectures (mainly transformers) and trained on enormous datasets.
Key traits of LLMs
- Massive Scale: billions / trillions of parameters
- Extensive Training Data: trained on diverse datasets
- General Purpose Ability: can perform many NLP tasks without needing task-specific training / fine-tuning
- Generative: can create new text, not just classify or label it
Impact of LLMs on NLP Link to heading
LLMs have shifted NLP from building many small, specialized models to using one flexible, general model that can be adapted with prompting or lightweight fine-tuning.
LLMs don’t replace NLP – they are the latest stage in NLP’s evolution.
NLP vs LLM Link to heading
- NLP is the field of study focusing on enabling machines to work with human language.
- LLMs are a subset of NLP models that have revolutionized the field of NLP by enabling general-purpose, high-quality language understanding and generation.