Xiaochang Li, "Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture" (U Chicago Press, 2026)

Since the advent of computers, society has fantasized about conversing with machines. In Divination Engines: Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, and the Making of Algorithmic Culture

(University of Chicago Press, 2026), Dr. Xiaochang Li shows readers how

that dream both fueled the demand for data and set the stage for

today’s generative AI.

With original research and clear

explanations, Dr. Li elucidates the origins of what’s

known as natural language processing (NLP) and the heated

twentieth-century debates between computer scientists, linguists, and

communication engineers that shaped today’s technology. Starting with

early devices that recorded, analyzed, and attempted to interpret human

speech, she demonstrates

how computer speech recognition, particularly efforts led by Bell Labs