What is NLP & How Does It Work? Natural language processing is a specialized branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to understand and interpret human speech. The way it works is this: NLP systems pre-process data by first “cleaning” the dataset. This essentially involves organizing the data into a more logical format — for example, breaking down text into smaller semantic units , or “tokens,” in a process known as tokenization. Pre-processing simply makes the dataset easier for the NLP system to interpret. From there, the system applies algorithms to the text in order to interpret it. The two primary algorithms used in NLP are rule-based systems , which interpret text based on predefined grammatical rules, and machine learning models , which use statistical methods and “learn” over time by being fed training data. Despite being a major technological advancement — one that stands at the crossroads of computer science and linguistics — NLP is...