Wits research sheds light on language learning and AI

New research by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) suggests that the way children learn language may help explain how human language becomes more structured over generations — and may also offer insights into the behaviour of large-scale artificial intelligence language models.

Wits research sheds light on language learning and AI. New research by the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) suggests that the way children learn language may help explain how human language becomes more structured over generations — and may also offer insights into the behaviour of large-scale artificial intelligence language models. The study, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences under the title Compositionality and Systematicity Emerge from Iterated Learning in Deep Linear Networks, examined how language-like data changes as it is passed between generations of learners. The research focused on “iterated learning”, a theory which holds that language evolves over generations as each new learner absorbs, adapts and transmits it. The process can make language more structured because easier patterns...