On Language and What Technology Is For

My grandmother couldn't buy groceries on her own. Not because she couldn't navigate a store, but because she didn't speak the language, and most of the systems around her weren't built with that in mind. Through her I started to see it everywhere: the aspiring founder in a village outside Lahore, the gig worker locked out because of a language barrier, the patient who can't describe symptoms in the room where it matters. The same friction, different form.

That's what I keep coming back to with language technology. The interesting question isn't what NLP can do in the abstract; it's what happens when you point it at the people the mainstream system wasn't designed for. A voice interface for lupus patients who can't use touchscreens. Real-time translation for gig workers. The technical approach changes with each project. The question doesn't.