Are You Inferring What I Think You’re Inferring?

“Much of the operationally-relevant information relied on in support of DoD missions may be implicit rather than explicitly expressed, and in many cases, information is deliberately obfuscated and important activities and objects are only indirectly referenced.”

In short, sometimes the meaning in messages just isn’t clear.  Ironic, isn’t it?

That can be a problem, though, especially on the ground where accurate and timely intelligence can affect the success or failure of a mission.

Through various and sundry means, DoD collects vast sets of data in the form of messages, documents, notes and the like, both on and off the battlefield. Thoroughly and efficiently processing this data to extract valuable content is a challenge based on volume alone, but the problem is magnified when important information within those files is deliberately masked by its authors.

So, what is there to do when you have commanders and warfighters on the front line depending on analysts to help them build informed plans?

Why, you use technology, of course.

DARPA  is developing a new type of automated, deep natural-language understanding technology which they say may hold a solution for more efficiently processing text information.  A mumbo-jumbo decomplicator?

Go on…

When processed at its most basic level without ingrained cultural filters, language offers the key to understanding connections in text that might not be readily apparent to humans.  A “just the facts” approach is more effective than the “the give us the whole story” angle, so to speak.  Also, it’s fun to talk like a 1940s detective.

But how do you do that?  Not the detective talk, sweetheart, I mean the dialing-it-down.  Getting to the root of the story.  The meat and potatoes of the whole shebang (okay, I’ll stop).

In short, DEFT.  At length…it makes more sense.

DARPA created the Deep Exploration and Filtering of Text (DEFT)  program to harness the power of language. Sophisticated artificial intelligence of this nature has the potential to enable defense analysts to efficiently investigate documents so they can discover implicitly expressed, actionable information contained within them.

Letting the technology do the dirty work, eh? (last one I swear).

Actually that’s a smart idea.  But that implies that the system will be capable of understanding the thought that goes behind human communication, right?  How is an AI going to know what we mean by our vague platitudes or double entendres?  Will it know what I mean when I type LOL?

“DEFT is attempting to create technology to make reliable inferences based on basic text,” said Bonnie Dorr , DARPA program manager for DEFT.  “We want the ability to mitigate ambiguity in text by stripping away filters that can cloud meaning and by rejecting false information.  To be successful, the technology needs to look beyond what is explicitly expressed in text to infer what is actually meant.”

The development of an automated solution may rely on contributions from the linguistics and computer science fields in the areas of artificial intelligence, computational linguistics, machine learning, natural-language understanding, discourse and dialogue analysis, and others.

They could have used this in Star Trek , you know.  Something complicated would happen and then one of the characters would have to sum it up in a simple metaphor.  With DEFT, they could have taken all those pithy one-liners out.  Imagine all the time and energy they could have saved while the warp core breached.  Again.

DEFT will build on existing DARPA programs and ongoing academic research into deep language understanding and artificial intelligence to address remaining capability gaps related to inference, causal relationships and anomaly detection.

“Much of the basic research needed for DEFT has been accomplished, but now has to be scaled, applied and integrated through the development of new technology,” Dorr said.

As information is processed, DEFT also aims to integrate individual facts into large domain models for assessment, planning and prediction. If successful, DEFT will allow analysts to move from limited, linear processing of insurmountable quantities of data to a nuanced, strategic exploration of available information.

So, by reading between the overly-complicated lines, DEFT might actually be able to glean useful information from what would otherwise be muddled and confusing messages.  I wonder if they can turn this technology into a teenage-text filter so I can weed through the bizarre pseudo-cavemen texts I get from my cousin.  Then I’ll finally know what “IDK, TTYL8R” means.

TY, DARPA!

Information for this article provided by DARPA

Jessica L. Tozer is a blogger for DoDLive and Armed With Science.  She is an Army veteran an avid science fiction fan, both of which contribute to her enthusiasm for technology in the military.

Gallaudet University Opens New Brain and Language Laboratory

On Thursday, Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., opened its new Brain and Language Laboratory designed to study how people learn and convey language.

Called BL2, the laboratory will help researchers acquire new knowledge about biological mechanisms and environmental factors that work together to forge human capacity for language communication.

"Our objective at BL2 is to investigate new scientific questions and to make significant discoveries in the fields of cognitive neuroscience and children's language development that will have the greatest benefits for society," said BL2 Director Laura-Ann Petitto of Gallaudet. "With a wealth of scientific innovations and equipment at our fingertips, my team and I have the necessary tools to achieve both our scientific and educational goals."

Petitto is a world-renowned cognitive and developmental neuroscientist and the science director of the Science of Learning Center for Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) funded by the National Science Foundation. She is known for her three decades of discoveries about language learning in the human brain. She is also known for her discoveries about the acquisition and neural organization of American Sign Language (ASL).

The centerpiece of the laboratory is a functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS), one of the world's most advanced brain imaging systems. The fNIRS tracks movement of blood in the brain in reaction to different stimuli.

Petitto and her team will use the fNIRS and other equipment to study the acquisition and neural processing of ASL, the optimal conditions for bilingual language development, the effects of early bilingual language exposure on the developing brain and its functions. The team also will investigate the ways that the age of first bilingual language exposure can both impact and benefit the brain's neural circuitry for language and higher cognition, and how young monolingual and bilingual children develop the capacity for reading.

"It has always been NSF's hope that VL2 wouldl serve to seed and to catalyze Gallaudet U's efforts to grow the next generation of scholars and to position Gallaudet graduates as leaders in research and education," said Soo-Siang Lim, program director for the Science of Learning Centers Program at NSF. "Gallaudet University's investments in Dr. Petitto's scientific leadership and the Brain and Language Learning Laboratory are significant new steps in making that hope a reality."

"At Gallaudet University, we are always endeavoring to break ground in a number of research fields of importance to the deaf community as well as to the larger scientific community," said Gallaudet University President T. Alan Hurwitz. "BL2 is another example of how Gallaudet is moving innovation and scientific research forward."

Federally chartered in 1864 by an Act of Congress, Gallaudet University is a bilingual, diverse, multicultural institution of higher education that focuses on the intellectual and professional advancement of deaf and hard of hearing individuals through American Sign Language and English. Its charter was signed by President Abraham Lincoln.

 
-NSF-

Air Force Launches Culture and Language Website

The Air Force Culture and Language Center, part of Air University’s Spaatz Center here, recently launched a new public website to provide information on the Air Force’s efforts to increase cross-cultural competence — a critical warfighting skill cited by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in an August memorandum to all Defense Department personnel.

“Both military and civilian personnel should have cross-cultural training to successfully work in DOD’s richly diverse organization and to better understand the global environment in which we operate,” the secretary wrote.

The site, www.culture.af.mil, highlights all AFCLC departments and programs, including free courses that provide Community College of the Air Force credit for Airmen and other cross-cultural competence media resources. Additional training and educational resources are offered to DOD members through the AFCLC’s private site, at https://wwwmil.maxwell.af.mil/afclc/, which requires users to have a Common Access Card and be on a .mil or .gov server.

“The site is an incredible resource to help our military and civilian personnel become more cross-culturally competent,” said Ms. Barbara Barger, the Air Force Senior Language Authority and director of the Air Force Language, Region and Culture Program Office. “Through the training and education offered by the AFCLC, we can ensure our people are able to negotiate culturally-complex environments and accomplish their mission, any time, any place.”

AFCLC’s public site is a one-stop shop, which also provides links to external culture, language and negotiation learning sites. Some examples include the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, the Marine Corps’ Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning, the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command Culture Center, and the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.

For more information, contact the AFCLC at 334-653-7729 or via email to afclc.pa@maxwell.af.mil.

(As published on the official Air Force website)