What are sequence-to-sequence tasks?

A sequence-to-sequence task is when a computer takes one group of things and turns it into another group of things, like translating words from one language to another.

Imagine you have a special box that takes in a message written in English and gives out the same message, but in Spanish. That’s like a sequence-to-sequence task, the input is a sentence (a sequence of words), and the output is another sentence (a different sequence of words).

Think of it like a robot who listens to you read a story out loud and then tells the story back to you in a different language. The robot doesn’t understand what it’s saying, but it knows how to match up words from one language to another.

Sometimes, the robot might even take a list of numbers or letters and turn them into something else, like turning "hello" into "h3l10".

These tasks are used in real life too! Like when you use a phone app to translate your words to someone who speaks another language. The computer is doing the same thing: taking one sequence and making a new one, just like that robot telling stories in Spanish!