For people who despair that there is too much information online, Chris Manning has a response: Technology is not the problem. In fact, technology may understand what you're trying to say.

At the annual conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in San Diego, the Stanford associate professor of computer science and linguistics talked about enabling computers to process human language well enough to use the information it conveys.

"The problem of the age is information overload," said Manning, who delivered his presentation on Feb. 19. "The fundamental challenge I'm going to talk about is how we can get computers to actually understand at least a reasonable amount of what they read."

As computers make more sense of what's online, they will deliver more relevant search results and will help summarize, structure and act on information that individuals care about, much like a personal assistant.

A smartphone email program that understands the difference between "We need the Q4 figures" and "We found the Q4 figures" could prove invaluable to a busy executive.

Computers also could help researchers extract key facts from a sea of articles to create and update databases. In fact, Manning already has developed software that mines biology research papers for basic data.