Natural language processing (NLP) is one of the most important frontiers in software. The basic idea—how to consume and generate human language effectively—has been an ongoing effort since the dawn of ...

It wasn’t too long ago that talking to a computer and having it not only understand, but speak back, was confined to the realm of science fiction, like that of the shipboard computers of Star Trek.

Ernie Smith is a former contributor to BizTech, an old-school blogger who specializes in side projects, and a tech history nut who researches vintage operating systems for fun. Combining computing ...