Popular Sci-Fi Movies that Showed the Glimpse of NLP Technology

These popular science fiction movies showed the workings of NLP ahead of its time.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a technology that is embedded in almost every machine learning device. Voice assistants that we use on a daily basis like Siri and Alexa also use NLP to understand our commands. Basically, NLP allows the device to hear what you say, understand it, and act on it. This technology is a part of artificial intelligence and enables devices to understand the human language. So, it is safe to say that NLP is all around us, in mobile applications, in smart home devices, and in movies too.

Sci-fi movie enthusiasts want the tech they see in movies to become a reality. Be it holographic phones, mind-reading devices, and X-ray glasses. While something like Iron Man's Jarvis is a reality, you'd be surprised to know that it also works on NLP. How else did you think Jarvis understands what Tony Stark is saying? If that made your eyes pop, here are other movies that showed the usage of natural language processing.

1. Bladerunner: In the classic sci-fi movie Bladerunner, the main character is seen talking to a video processor that zooms in and pans out according to the character's voice commands. That is one-way natural language processing communication. Because the computer system doesn't talk back, it's just a command-language understanding system enabling the video processor to perform tasks.

2. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Babel fish, the oldest thing in the universe, was smart enough to get the "gift" of telepathy as a punishment. But, as shown in the movie, they get so tired of people reading their thoughts that they invest in language to cover their genuine thoughts. That's also an example of NLP.

3. Star Trek: Don't Star Trek fans want everything shown in the movie to become a reality? The Universal Translator shown in the movie can be related to natural language processing. In fact, almost every interaction with the computer was in the form of a command or a request. The computer in the movie was not the most advanced one as it did not talk back, but the act of understanding the given order showed that the computer understood, thanks to NLP.

4. Star Wars: C3PO, the robot that is equipped with a machine translation system, capable of processing several languages, works on a linguistic technology like NLP.

5. Firefly: In one of the DVD releases of Firefly, the show has an encyclopedia-like device that speaks out information. That also checks the NLP box when it comes to the technology behind it.

6. Earth vs. the Flying Saucers: Anyone who watched this 50's science fiction movie must be remembering the machine transaction of an alien language via a mechanical arm made out of rows of pens. Back in the time, it was quite amusing to watch but if you rewatch it now with some NLP knowledge, you can spot it.

7. Demolition Man: What would your reaction be if you called a police department and the agent who picks up asks you if you want to speak to a computer. Amazed? That's NLO. enabling the computer to understand your language.

8. Forbidden Planet: In this movie, Robbie the Robot can understand English and follow orders. How can a machine understand human language and communication? Through NLP.

9. Short Circuit: Another movie with speaking robots. If you look back at the possibility of that happening, it's already a reality using NLP as one of the technologies.

10. Red Dwarf: A popular TV show with a computer named "Holly" that is capable of analyzing many simultaneous conversations and computations. It also knows many human and other languages. Those are the capabilities of NLP.