In the year 2022, the Urgent Spanish Foundation (FundéuRAE) awarded the word of the year title to the complex expression “artificial intelligence & rdquor; (AI).
If we look for its definition in the dictionary, we will find that this term refers to the “scientific discipline that deals with creating computer programs that execute operations comparable to those carried out by the human mind, such as learning or logical reasoning & rdquor;.
Such is the importance that the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language attaches to this expression, and to everything that has to do with it and the Spanish language, that on May 21, 2023, the professor of artificial intelligence Asunción Gómez-Pérez joined the RAE to occupy the ‘Q’ chair.
The need to have an expert in this field in an institution of such magnitude shows what is to come.
Another of the efforts made by the RAE in terms of artificial intelligence and the Spanish language has materialized in the project Spanish Language and Artificial Intelligence (LEIA). This initiative not only warns us of the possible challenges that the information generated by applications such as ChatGPT can provide in terms of linguistic correction, but also advocates “taking care of the use of Spanish in technological media& rdquor ;.
Hence, it is necessary to carry out a brief linguistic review of some key elements that we must take into account when using systems that base their use on artificial intelligence.
Why do we like to steal from English so much?
The rivers of digital ink that have flooded the world’s media about this phenomenon in recent months have generated a wave of virtually unknown words that we have to decipher.
In many cases, we are faced with “stolen & rdquor; from English (crude foreign words) and infiltrated in phrases perfectly written in Spanish that are intended for us to understand perfectly by magic.
But this It is nothing new, much less exclusive to the world of artificial intelligence.. Although the use of neologisms, or a new expression in a language, can occur “because of prestige, ignorance or semantic emptiness& rdquor;it is important not to fall into the tendency of using unnecessary Anglicisms (something that we like very much).
So, below, we offer some practical advice for writing – and talking – about artificial intelligence without killing the language in the attempt.
ten keywords
It’s not just a matter of what let’s take measures to adapt to the professional challenges that the avalanche of artificial intelligence can bringbut it is also the time to be able to talk about it properly wherever we are.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI): generative artificial intelligence (IAG).
Large Language Models: massive language models.
Prompt / Prompt Engineering / Prompt Engineer: command / command engineering / command engineers. (It is the fourth of the meanings of the word command in the dictionary of the RAE).
Natural Language Processing (NLP): Natural Language Processing (NLP).
AI Hallucination: artificial intelligence hallucination.
Tokenization: data encryption.
Machine Learning: machine learning.
Algorithmic Bias: algorithmic bias.
deep learning: deep learning.
You may think that the chatbot neologism is missing from the above list, but the truth is that the fundéualready in 2019, recognized it as a valid neologism, so it should not be written in quotation marks or in italics.
It is one thing to know what the terms that are included above mean and another, very different, is to know how they are written. Are the acronyms capitalized? Should I use italics? The quotation marks? What a ruckus!
The pen is worth more than the sword
It is enough to take a walk through the digital kiosk to read headlines such as the following:
Although the initials “IA” are written in upper case, their development should always be written in lower case. The same happens, for example, with PLN and its development “natural language processing”.
Many of the terms and expressions mentioned above (deep learning, massive language models) tend to be capitalized. The use of capital letters, in these cases, is not justified, hence they must be written in lower case.
In those cases in which it is necessary to include the term in English (or in any other language) because there is no accepted or validated equivalent, the Fundéu is clear about this and notifies us that these should be written in italics or in quotation marks if italics are not available.
We must not forget that, as these are new expressions and terms, we have to fight not to incorporate them into Spanish as is. Adapt them, look for equivalences and stop for a minute when including them in a text, as well as think about the use that should be made, in each case, of uppercase, lowercase, italics or quotation marks.
What does ChatGPT say?
As an example, we asked ChatGPT how it would write artificial intelligence and its response was as follows:
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“The most common way to write ‘artificial intelligence’ is in lower case, since it is a generic concept and not a proper name. However, depending on the context, it can also be found in initial capitals, especially if used at the beginning of a sentence or in titles. In summary, the recommended form would be ‘artificial intelligence’ in lower case, unless there is a specific reason to use initial capital letter & rdquor ;.As we can see, it is convenient not to pay too much attention to chatbots when it comes to how to write fashionable terms and resort, whenever we have doubts, to official and reliable sources such as the RAE or the Fundéu. Although artificial intelligence is already inescapable, let’s not let it tell us how to write.
This article was originally published on The Conversation. read the original.