Why A.I. Struggles with Negative Words | Otherwords

One of the first words a baby learns is NO! But negation is a deceptively complex linguistic process! Otherwords is a PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and finds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fields of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective on what it means to be human. Host: Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D. Creator/Director: Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham Writer: Taylor Behnke Producer: Katie Graham Editor/Animation: Andrew Matthews Executive Producer: Amanda Fox Fact Checker: Yvonne McGreevy Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell Stock Images from Shutterstock Music from APM Music Otherwords is a production of Spotzen for PBS Digital Studios. © 2025 PBS. All rights reserved. sources: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-puffer-jacket-fake-photos-deepfake-power-peril-of-ai/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-like-chatgpt-are-no-good-at-not-20230512/ https://wals.info/chapter/112 https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/negative-concord https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002622 https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2024/may/how-does--not--affect-what-we-understand--scientists-find-negati.html https://bpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/sites.brown.edu/dist/8/25/files/2018/10/Reuter_et_al-2017-Child_Development-16tl28r.pdf https://aphasiology.pitt.edu/493/1/05-10.pdf https://direct.mit.edu/tacl/article/doi/10.1162/tacl_a_00298/43535/What-BERT-Is-Not-Lessons-from-a-New-Suite-of https://www.quantamagazine.org/ai-like-chatgpt-are-no-good-at-not-20230512/