Speech and language processing: where have we been and where are we going?

Can we use the past to predict the future? Moore’s Law is a great example: performance doubles and prices halve approximately every 18 months. This trend has held up well to the test of time and is expected to continue for some time. Similar arguments can be found in speech demonstrating consistent progress over decades. Unfortunately, there are also cases where history repeats itself, as well as major dislocations, fundamental changes that invalidate fundamental assumptions. What will happen, for example, when petabytes become a commodity? Can demand keep up with supply? How much text and speech would it take to match this supply? Priorities will change. Search will become more important than coding and dictation.