The North American Computational Linguistics Open Competition (NACLO) isn’t just a language puzzle contest; it’s a proving ground for the future generation of AI specialists. Every year, hundreds of middle and high school students across the U.S. and Canada compete in NACLO, tackling complex linguistic problems to hone their pattern-recognition skills. The top performers then advance to the International Linguistics Olympiad (IOL), held this year in Bucharest, Romania.
Why This Matters: The rise of NACLO coincides with the explosion of interest in computational linguistics—the field bridging human language and artificial intelligence. As large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT become more central to our digital lives, the ability to understand how these models work, and how languages themselves function, is paramount.
The Competition and Its Impact
NACLO isn’t just about identifying patterns in obscure languages like Warlpiri. It’s about applying those skills to real-world problems. According to Lori Levin, a computational linguist at Carnegie Mellon University and one of NACLO’s founders, the field is bidirectional. It involves using computers to analyze language, but also using computational methods to unlock insights into how human languages work. This is particularly relevant for preserving endangered languages.
Tom McCoy, a former NACLO winner and researcher at Yale, emphasizes the connection to AI. “We’re trying to understand what’s going on inside AI systems that process language, like ChatGPT, and then also understanding how we can use those AI systems to give us insight into the human mind,” he says. The puzzles themselves mirror the analytical rigor required in both linguistics and AI development.
From Puzzles to Careers
NACLO participants don’t necessarily end up in linguistics alone. Many pursue mathematics, computer science, or other STEM fields, armed with sharpened problem-solving skills. Cerulean Ozarow, a past winner and current math teacher, notes that the competition provides valuable practice regardless of career path.
The competition’s origin story is itself a testament to passion. Levin founded NACLO in 2006 on a whim, and the late Dragomir Radev immediately volunteered his support, embodying the spirit of collaboration that drives the event. Today, NACLO is run entirely by volunteers, driven by a mission to make linguistics accessible to all.
“Generally linguistics isn’t taught in school, and so when you solve a NACLO puzzle, you suddenly see a way that language can be that maybe you hadn’t thought of.” — Lori Levin
What’s Next?
NACLO organizers are expanding the competition to include introductory rounds with more accessible questions, aiming to reach a wider audience. The puzzles themselves—ranging from deciphering coded phrases to matching linguistic concepts to Venn diagrams—serve as a microcosm of the challenges at the heart of modern AI.
The competition demonstrates that the future of AI and computational linguistics depends on a generation equipped with the skills to analyze, decode, and innovate in the realm of language.
