Localization Industry Standards Association or LISA was a Swiss-based trade body concerning the translation of computer software (and associated materials) into multiple natural languages, which existed from 1990 to February 2011. It counted among its members most of the large information technology companies of the period, including Adobe, Cisco, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, McAfee, Nokia, Novell and Xerox. LISA played a significant role in representing its partners at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and the TermBase eXchange (TBX) standard developed by LISA was submitted to ISO in 2007 and became ISO 30042:2008. LISA also had a presence at the W3C. A number of the LISA standards are used by the OASIS Open Architecture for XML Authoring and Localization framework. LISA shut down on 28 February 2011, and its website went offline shortly afterwards. In the wake of the closure of LISA, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute started an Industry Specification Group (ISG) for localization. The ISG has five work items: Term-Base eXchange (TBX) / ISO 30042:2008 Translation Memory eXchange (TMX), with GALA Segmentation Rules eXchange (SRX) / ISO/CD 24621) Global information management Metrics eXchange – Volume (GMX-V); Another organization that was formed in response to the closure of LISA is Terminology for Large Organizations (TerminOrgs), a consortium of terminology professionals who promote terminology management best practices.
Blobotics
Blobotics is a term describing research into chemical-based computer processors based on ions rather than electrons. Andrew Adamatzky, a computer scientist at the University of the West of England, Bristol used the term in an article in New Scientist March 28, 2005 [1]. The aim is to create 'liquid logic gates' which would be 'infinitely reconfigurable and self-healing'. The process relies on the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction, a repeating cycle of three separate sets of reactions. Such a processor could form the basis of a robot which, using artificial sensors, interact with its surroundings in a way which mimics living creatures. The coining of the term was featured by ABC radio in Australia [2].
Confusion network
A confusion network (sometimes called a word confusion network or informally known as a sausage) is a natural language processing method that combines outputs from multiple automatic speech recognition or machine translation systems. Confusion networks are simple linear directed acyclic graphs with the property that each a path from the start node to the end node goes through all the other nodes. The set of words represented by edges between two nodes is called a confusion set. In machine translation, the defining characteristic of confusion networks is that they allow multiple ambiguous inputs, deferring committal translation decisions until later stages of processing. This approach is used in the open source machine translation software Moses and the proprietary translation API in IBM Bluemix Watson.
Dhammin
Dhammin (Arabic: ضمّن) is a political platform that manages candidates' electoral campaigns for the National Assembly, Municipal Council or Cooperative Society councils of Kuwait. The platform was founded by Abdullah Al-Salloum and it is, according to news reports and interviews, the first within the field to apply distributed-systems' methodologies.
Vector database
A vector database, vector store or vector search engine is a database that stores and retrieves embeddings of data in vector space. Vector databases typically implement approximate nearest neighbor algorithms so users can search for records semantically similar to a given input, unlike traditional databases which primarily look up records by exact match. Use-cases for vector databases include similarity search, semantic search, multi-modal search, recommendations engines, object detection, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Vector embeddings are mathematical representations of data in a high-dimensional space. In this space, each dimension corresponds to a feature of the data, with the number of dimensions ranging from a few hundred to tens of thousands, depending on the complexity of the data being represented. Each data item is represented by one vector in this space. Words, phrases, or entire documents, as well as images, audio, and other types of data, can all be vectorized. These feature vectors may be computed from the raw data using machine learning methods such as feature extraction algorithms, word embeddings or deep learning networks. The goal is that semantically similar data items receive feature vectors close to each other. Vector retrieval can be combined with metadata filtering or lexical search to support filtered and hybrid retrieval workflows. == Techniques == Common techniques for similarity search on high-dimensional vectors include: Hierarchical Navigable Small World (HNSW) graphs Locality-sensitive hashing (LSH) and sketching Product quantization (PQ) Inverted files These techniques may also be combined in vector search systems. In recent benchmarks, HNSW-based implementations have been among the best performers. Conferences such as the International Conference on Similarity Search and Applications (SISAP) and the Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) have hosted competitions on vector search in large databases. == Applications == Vector databases are used in a wide range of machine learning applications including similarity search, semantic search, multi-modal search, recommendations engines, object detection, and retrieval-augmented generation. === Retrieval-augmented generation === An especially common use-case for vector databases is in retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), a method to improve domain-specific responses of large language models. The retrieval component of a RAG can be any search system, but is most often implemented as a vector database. Text documents describing the domain of interest are collected, and for each document or document section, a feature vector (known as an "embedding") is computed, typically using a deep learning network, and stored in a vector database along with a link to the document. Given a user prompt, the feature vector of the prompt is computed, and the database is queried to retrieve the most relevant documents. These are then automatically added into the context window of the large language model, and the large language model proceeds to create a response to the prompt given this context. == Implementations ==
Production (computer science)
In computer science, a production or production rule is a rewrite rule that replaces some symbols with other symbols. A finite set of productions P {\displaystyle P} is the main component in the specification of a formal grammar (specifically a generative grammar). In such grammars, a set of productions is a special case of relation on the set of strings V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{}} (where ∗ {\displaystyle {}^{}} is the Kleene star operator) over a finite set of symbols V {\displaystyle V} called a vocabulary that defines which non-empty strings can be substituted with others. The set of productions is thus a special kind subset P ⊂ V ∗ × V ∗ {\displaystyle P\subset V^{}\times V^{}} and productions are then written in the form u → v {\displaystyle u\to v} to mean that ( u , v ) ∈ P {\displaystyle (u,v)\in P} (not to be confused with → {\displaystyle \to } being used as function notation, since there may be multiple rules for the same u {\displaystyle u} ). Given two subsets A , B ⊂ V ∗ {\displaystyle A,B\subset V^{}} , productions can be restricted to satisfy P ⊂ A × B {\displaystyle P\subset A\times B} , in which case productions are said "to be of the form A → B {\displaystyle A\to B} . Different choices and constructions of A , B {\displaystyle A,B} lead to different types of grammars. In general, any production of the form u → ϵ , {\displaystyle u\to \epsilon ,} where ϵ {\displaystyle \epsilon } is the empty string (sometimes also denoted λ {\displaystyle \lambda } ), is called an erasing rule, while productions that would produce strings out of nowhere, namely of the form ϵ → v , {\displaystyle \epsilon \to v,} are never allowed. In order to allow the production rules to create meaningful sentences, the vocabulary is partitioned into (disjoint) sets Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } and N {\displaystyle N} providing two different roles: Σ {\displaystyle \Sigma } denotes the terminal symbols known as an alphabet containing the symbols allowed in a sentence; N {\displaystyle N} denotes nonterminal symbols, containing a distinguished start symbol S ∈ N {\displaystyle S\in N} , that are needed together with the production rules to define how to build the sentences. In the most general case of an unrestricted grammar, a production u → v {\displaystyle u\to v} , is allowed to map arbitrary strings u {\displaystyle u} and v {\displaystyle v} in V {\displaystyle V} (terminals and nonterminals), as long as u {\displaystyle u} is not empty. So unrestricted grammars have productions of the form V ∗ ∖ { ϵ } → V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{}\setminus \{\epsilon \}\to V^{}} or if we want to disallow changing finished sentences V ∗ N V ∗ = ( V ∗ ∖ Σ ∗ ) → V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{}NV^{}=(V^{}\setminus \Sigma ^{})\to V^{}} , where V ∗ N V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{}NV^{}} indicates concatenation and forces a non-terminal symbol to always be present on the left-hand side of the productions, and ∖ {\displaystyle \setminus } denotes set minus or set difference. If we do not allow the start symbol to occur in v {\displaystyle v} (the word on the right side), we have to replace V ∗ {\displaystyle V^{}} with ( V ∖ { S } ) ∗ {\displaystyle (V\setminus \{S\})^{}} on the right-hand side. The other types of formal grammar in the Chomsky hierarchy impose additional restrictions on what constitutes a production. Notably in a context-free grammar, the left-hand side of a production must be a single nonterminal symbol. So productions are of the form: N → V ∗ {\displaystyle N\to V^{}} == Grammar generation == To generate a string in the language, one begins with a string consisting of only a single start symbol, and then successively applies the rules (any number of times, in any order) to rewrite this string. This stops when a string containing only terminals is obtained. The language consists of all the strings that can be generated in this manner. Any particular sequence of legal choices taken during this rewriting process yields one particular string in the language. If there are multiple different ways of generating this single string, then the grammar is said to be ambiguous. For example, assume the alphabet consists of a {\displaystyle a} and b {\displaystyle b} , with the start symbol S {\displaystyle S} , and we have the following rules: 1. S → a S b {\displaystyle S\rightarrow aSb} 2. S → b a {\displaystyle S\rightarrow ba} then we start with S {\displaystyle S} , and can choose a rule to apply to it. If we choose rule 1, we replace S {\displaystyle S} with a S b {\displaystyle aSb} and obtain the string a S b {\displaystyle aSb} . If we choose rule 1 again, we replace S {\displaystyle S} with a S b {\displaystyle aSb} and obtain the string a a S b b {\displaystyle aaSbb} . This process is repeated until we only have symbols from the alphabet (i.e., a {\displaystyle a} and b {\displaystyle b} ). If we now choose rule 2, we replace S {\displaystyle S} with b a {\displaystyle ba} and obtain the string a a b a b b {\displaystyle aababb} , and are done. We can write this series of choices more briefly, using symbols: S ⇒ a S b ⇒ a a S b b ⇒ a a b a b b {\displaystyle S\Rightarrow aSb\Rightarrow aaSbb\Rightarrow aababb} . The language of the grammar is the set of all the strings that can be generated using this process: { b a , a b a b , a a b a b b , a a a b a b b b , … } {\displaystyle \{ba,abab,aababb,aaababbb,\dotsc \}} .
Stochastic parrot
In machine learning, the term stochastic parrot is a metaphor that frames large language models as systems that statistically mimic text without real understanding. The word "stochastic" – from the ancient Greek "στοχαστικός" (stokhastikos, 'based on guesswork') – is a term from probability theory meaning "randomly determined". The word "parrot" refers to parrots' ability to mimic human speech. The term was introduced in a 2021 paper on AI ethics titled "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜" and authored by Timnit Gebru, Emily M. Bender, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Margaret Mitchell. The paper outlined possible risks associated with large language models (LLMs). In December 2020, it was the subject of a workplace dispute between Gebru (then co-leader of Google's Ethical Artificial Intelligence Team) and Google, which had requested the retraction of the paper. The incident culminated in Gebru's controversial departure from the company. The paper was later presented at the 2021 ACM Conference, and the term "stochastic parrot" has seen widespread use in academic research concerning generative AI and LLMs. The term has been interpreted negatively as an insult towards AI. == Background == Timnit Gebru is an AI ethics researcher, Emily M. Bender is a linguist specializing in computational linguistics, and Margaret Mitchell is a computer scientist specializing in algorithmic bias. Gebru had joined Google in 2018, where she co-led a team on the ethics of artificial intelligence with Mitchell. In late 2020, the paper "On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? 🦜" was co-written by Gebru and five other researchers, four of whom were Google employees. The paper argues that large language models (LLMs) present significant risks such as environmental and financial costs, inscrutability leading to unknown dangerous biases, and potential for deception as LLMs do not understand the concepts underlying what they learn. The paper states that LLMs are "stitching together sequences of linguistic forms ... observed in its vast training data, according to probabilistic information about how they combine, but without any reference to meaning." Therefore, they are labeled "stochastic parrots". === Dismissal of Gebru by Google === After the paper was submitted for consideration to the 2021 ACM Conference, Google requested that Gebru either retract the paper from the conference or remove the names of Google employees from it. Gebru refused to do so without further discussion, and emailed Google Research vice president Megan Kacholia that if the company could not explain the request for retraction and address other concerns regarding similar projects, she would plan to resign after a transition period, stating that they could "work on a last date". The following day, on December 2, 2020, Gebru received an email saying that Google was "accepting her resignation". Her abrupt firing sparked protests by Google employees and negative publicity for the company. == Usage == The phrase has been used by AI skeptics to signify that LLMs lack understanding of the meaning of their outputs. Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, used the term shortly after the release of ChatGPT in December 2022, tweeting "i am a stochastic parrot, and so r u". The term was nominated as the 2023 AI-related Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society. == Debate == Some LLMs, such as ChatGPT, have become capable of interacting with users in convincingly human-like conversations. The development of these new systems has deepened the discussion of the extent to which LLMs understand or are simply "parroting". According to machine learning researchers Lindholm, Wahlström, Lindsten, and Schön, the term "stochastic parrot" highlights two vital limitations of LLMs: LLMs are limited by the data they are trained on and are simply stochastically repeating contents of datasets. Because they are just making up outputs based on training data, LLMs do not understand if they are saying something incorrect or inappropriate. Lindholm et al. noted that, with poor quality datasets and other limitations, a learning machine might produce results that are "dangerously wrong". === Subjective experience === In the mind of a human being, words and language correspond to things one has experienced. For LLMs, according to proponents of the theory, words correspond only to other words and patterns of usage fed into their training data. Proponents of the idea of stochastic parrots thus conclude that statements about LLMs are due to "the human tendency to attribute meaning to text", and claim this occurs despite the LLMs not actually understanding language. === Fine-tuning === Kelsey Piper argued that the claim that LLMs are stochastic parrots or mere "next-token predictors" focuses on pre-training, ignoring that modern LLMs are also fine-tuned to follow instructions and to prefer accurate answers. === Hallucinations and mistakes === The tendency of LLMs to pass off false information as fact is held as support. Called hallucinations or confabulations, LLMs will occasionally synthesize information that matches some pattern. LLMs may fail to distinguish fact and fiction, which leads to the claim that they can't connect words to a comprehension of the world, as humans do. Furthermore, LLMs may fail to decipher complex or ambiguous grammar cases that rely on understanding the meaning of language. For example: The wet newspaper that fell down off the table is my favorite newspaper. But now that my favorite newspaper fired the editor I might not like reading it anymore. Can I replace 'my favorite newspaper' by 'the wet newspaper that fell down off the table' in the second sentence? GPT-4, an LLM released in March 2023, responded yes, not understanding that the meaning of "newspaper" is different in these two contexts; it is first an object and second an institution. === Benchmarks and experiments === One argument against the hypothesis that LLMs are stochastic parrot is their results on benchmarks for reasoning, common sense and language understanding. In 2023, some LLMs have shown good results on many language understanding tests, such as the Super General Language Understanding Evaluation (SuperGLUE). GPT-4 scored in the >90th-percentile on the Uniform Bar Examination and achieved 93% accuracy on the MATH benchmark of high-school Olympiad problems, results that exceed rote pattern-matching expectations. Such tests, and the smoothness of many LLM responses, help as many as 51% of AI professionals believe they can truly understand language with enough data, according to a 2022 survey. === Expert rebuttals === Some AI researchers dispute the notion that LLMs merely "parrot" their training data. Geoffrey Hinton, a pioneering figure in neural networks, counters that the metaphor misunderstands the prerequisite for accurate language prediction. He argues that "to predict the next word accurately, you have to understand the sentence", a view he presented on 60 Minutes in 2023. From this perspective, understanding is not an alternative to statistical prediction, but rather an emergent property required to perform it effectively at scale. Hinton also uses logical puzzles to demonstrate that LLMs actually understand language. A 2024 Scientific American investigation described a closed Berkeley workshop where state-of-the-art models solved novel tier-4 mathematics problems and produced coherent proofs, indicating reasoning abilities beyond memorization. The GPT-4 Technical Report showed human-level results on professional and academic exams (e.g., the Uniform Bar Exam and USMLE), challenging the "parrot" characterization. Anthropic conducted mechanistic interpretability research on Claude, using attribution graphs to identify circuits. The research showed how the LLM processes information via chains of fuzzy logical inference, and indicated an ability to plan ahead. They found that Claude 3.5 Haiku "employs remarkably general abstractions", forms "internally generated plans for its future outputs" and "works backwards from its longer-term goals". They noted that "The mechanisms of the model can apparently only be faithfully described using an overwhelmingly large causal graph." They also found that the model includes "mechanisms that could underlie a simple form of metacognition", in that it "thinks about" the level of its own knowledge before reaching its answer. === Interpretability === Another line of evidence against the 'stochastic parrot' claim comes from mechanistic interpretability, a research field dedicated to reverse-engineering LLMs to understand their internal workings. Rather than only observing the model's input-output behavior, these techniques probe the model's internal activations, which can be used to determine if they contain structured representations of the world. The goal is to investigate whether LLMs are merely manipulating surface statistics or if t