Guy is a computational linguist - he models human language, implements those models computationally, and tests them using real-world data. His motivations are twofold: to shed light on what it means to know a language, and to push forward the limits of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The main focus of Guy's research is on semantics. How should meaning be represented, and how can those representations be learnt? He approaches this with a foot in two worlds: the logical world of formal semantics, and the data-driven world of distributional semantics. The aim of formal semantics is to develop mathematical models of meaning, with a particular focus on semantic composition and logical inference. The aim of distributional semantics is to develop computational models of meaning, using algorithms that can be run on a corpus of text.

Beyond semantics, his general research interests include: machine learning (how can models work with structure?), philosophy of language (what does it mean to know a language?), morphosyntax (what are the components of language?), and NLP for low-resource languages (how can we make sure NLP works for everyone?).

Guy began his undergraduate studies as a mathematician at Trinity College, Cambridge, before switching to a masters in computer science, focusing on computational linguistics. He then spent one year studying at Saarland University and working at DFKI (the German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence), before returning to Cambridge to pursue a PhD under the supervision of Ann Copestake, completed in 2018.

Born in Singapore and raised in London, Guy speaks English (native), German (fluent), French (fluent), Hokkien (intermediate), Mandarin (intermediate), and bits and pieces of others, including Greek, Georgian, Swedish, Dutch, and Rhine-Franconian.