“Jaguar.”

To most computers, that word printed on an otherwise blank screen is simply a string of characters.

It’s different for people. You see a word associated with a big cat, a large mammal. Given the context of valet parking, it might also bring to mind a luxury brand that is similar to Mercedes and BMW.

Put another way, you have a collection of ideas, or concepts, of what “Jaguar” means and the mental agility to use context to infer which concept the writer of the word intended to convey.

On Tuesday, a team of scientists from Microsoft Research Asia, Microsoft’s research lab in Beijing, China, announced the public release of technology designed to help computers conceptualize in a humanlike fashion.