Glossodiversity and Artificial Intelligence Endangered Language Preservation and the Future of Smart Machines Simon D. Levy Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA Endangered Language Preservation and the Future of Smart Machines Simon D. Levy Computer Science Department Washington & Lee University Lexington, VA

Biodiversity and Pharmacology

Greatest plant biodiversity is in rainforests: 170,000 of the world's 250,000 known plant species. “We are trying to do biology knowing perhaps only a tenth, or one hundredth, of our species” –– Terry Gosliner, National Geographic

Biodiversity and Pharmacology Among top 10 most ecologically diverse countries on earth Third highest deforestation rate (1.1%) in South America ( )

Biodiversity and Pharmacology

Language: A Window on the Mind Affects how we think about the world Amazing variety of ways of saying the “same thing” Counter-intuitive constraints not derivable (?) from more general principles

Fallacies & Pitfalls “Eskimo has over 100 words for snow.” “Primitive” languages Turing equivalence vs. Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Example: Transitive vs. Ergative Languages English: He saw her She saw him Basque ( ) : Gizona etorri da. "The man has arrived.“ Gizonak mutila ikusi du. "The man saw the boy."

Example: “Gender” English: (1) Masculine (2) Feminine Dyirbal (Dixon 1979): (1) Animate objects, men (2) Women, water, fire, violence (3) Edible fruit and vegetables (4) Miscellaneous

Example: Counting Quantity!KungWarlmanpa 1 r|e'ejinta 2 tsãjirrama 3 n!eni 4

Example: Counting Quantity!KungWarlmanpaSpanishEnglishFrench 1 r|e'ejintauno / pimeroone / firstun / premier 2 tsãjirramados / segundotwo / seconddeux / deuxième 3 n!enitres / tercerothree / third trois / troisième 4 cuatro / cuartofour / fourth quatre / quatrième

Languages Are Also Disappearing “Of the more than 6,000 languages currently being spoken, fewer than half are likely to survive the [21 st ] century” – Douglas Whalen, Endangered Language Fund Appears to correlate with biodiversity (Lisa Manne, Ecology & Evolutionary Research 2003)

What Does This Have to Do with AI? AI is programs. Different programming languages express the same thing in different ways. These differences constrain our ability to think about and solve problems.

What Does This Have to Do with AI? public static int factorial(int n) { // Java version if (n == 0) return 1; else return n * factorial(n-1); }

What Does This Have to Do with AI? factorial(0, 1).% Prolog version factorial(N, F) :- N1 is N-1, factorial(N1, F1), F is N * F1.

Classical AI View Artificial flying machines don’t work like natural flying machines (birds, bats), so why should artificial minds work like brains?

So Where are the Artificial Minds? To make machines that think, we need [pace Minsky] to understand how the human brain/mind works.

The Bigger Picture We can’t (just yet) directly study how the brain works.

The Bigger Picture We can use phenomena like language to broaden our view of how the mind works (what would an “ergative programming language” look like?)

The Bigger Picture The languages most likely to give us these insights are the ones that are most endangered.

Let’s (Not) Get Carried Away…

Links Endangered Language Fund: International Clearing House for Endangered Languages: