Assessing Natural Language Processing

This chapter details evaluation techniques in Natural Language Processing, a challenging sub-discipline of artificial intelligence (AI). It highlights proven methods to provide both fair and replicable results for evaluation of system performance, as well as methods of longitudinal evaluation and comparison with human performance. It recaps pitfalls to avoid in applying techniques to new areas. In addition to direct measurement and comparison of system and human performance for individual tasks, the chapter reflects on the degree of shared human-machine task, scalability and potential for malicious application. Finally, it discusses the applicability of human intelligence tests to AI systems and summarises considerations for devising a general framework for assessing AI and robotics.