Why can’t we use natural language as our representation language in AI?
What you are describing is Unsupervised feature learning, which is a characteristic of Deep learning. Supervised feature learning involves learning features from labeled data. Labeled data is referred to as Metadata, or data about data. Whereas, unsupervised feature learning involves learning features from unlabeled data. According to Wikipedia,one of the promises of deep learning is replacing handcrafted features with efficient algorithms for unsupervised or semi-supervised feature learning and hierarchical feature extraction.
See also my recent Quora answers to: