NLP (Natural Language Processing)

Also known as: Natural Language Processing, Text Mining, Computational Linguistics

AI field that enables computers to understand, interpret, and generate human language—the foundation of most AI applications in research.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the branch of artificial intelligence that deals with the interaction between computers and human language. It encompasses a set of techniques for machines to understand, interpret, analyze, and generate text or speech.

Key NLP tasks relevant to research include: tokenization and parsing, sentiment analysis, named entity recognition (NER), text classification, automatic summarization, translation, text generation, and topic coding (topic modeling).

NLP is the technical foundation on which applications such as LLMs, conversational assistants, automatic open-end coding systems, and AI moderators are built.

For research in LATAM, it is especially important that NLP models are well calibrated for regional Spanish variants (Mexican, Colombian, Chilean, etc.) and neutral Spanish.