Re: Wolfram Alpha


"Christian Weisgerber" <naddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:gus0ed$24hq$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Mok-Kong Shen <mok-kong.shen@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> It claims to understand queries in natural language and to supply the
> answers.

If it claims to understand queries in natural language and that claim
is not qualified (i.e. not subjected to certain conditions or
restrictions), then one could at once forget that.

I can't find any such claim on the Alpha pages. I don't know how
this widely repeated rumor started; maybe Mr. Wolfram got carried
away in one of his presentations.

So far, my initial impression has been confirmed: Alpha simply
latches on to keywords. It appears to have no understanding of
English grammar and the FAQ even advises to use telegram style:
"Try making your query the minimum number of words needed to
communicate." Since many keywords are ambiguous, Alpha then uses a
probabilistic model to decide which combination of disambiguations
lead to something it can query or calculate. This disambiguation
from context is interesting and mirrors an aspect of the way humans
process language, but overall Alpha's "linguistic capabilities" are
rudimentary at best.

It is indicative that Alpha does not handle misspellings. Even
case is important. For instance, if you are looking for information
on the Cretaceous, you must capitalize the term. A query for
"cretaceous" or "cretaceous period" will go astray.

--
Christian "naddy" Weisgerber naddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx

While this has nothing to with the way Alpha processes the language of requests, I did discover an inaccuracy in its information. Querying "time in Australia", the time and date for Sydney were correct at the reported 3:33am Tuesday May 19, but the comparative reference for my time zone (San Francisco) showed 10:33am Tuesday May 19 --- as far as I know, it's still Monday May 18 here . . .

.

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