Zoom: https://oregonstate.zoom.us/j/91611213801?pwd=Wm9JSkN1eW84RUpiS2JEd0E5T…
This talk presents challenges and opportunities for Natural Language Processing (NLP) Applications, focusing on the future of NLP in the age of Large Language Models (LLMs). A case is made for moving beyond “just the words of the language” to support more reliable and transparent output, i.e., representation-driven NLP that adopts the power of LLMs but incorporates explanatory internal structures to capture principles that apply across human languages. By adopting hybrid approaches, it is possible to combine linguistic generalizations together with statistical and neural models to handle implicitly conveyed information (e.g., beliefs and intentions), while supporting “explainable” outputs that enable end users to understand how and why an AI system produces an answer. Representative examples of ChatGPT output are provided to illustrate areas where more exploration is needed, particularly with respect to task-specific goals.
Professor Dorr is a Professor in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the University of Florida where she directs the Natural Language & Culture (NLP) Laboratory and is an affiliate of Florida’s Institutes for National Security (FINS) and Cyber Security (FICS). Her research focuses on deep language understanding, language processing using linguistically informed machine learning models, explainable artificial intelligence (AI), social computing, and detection of underlying mental states. Her recent contributions have fallen squarely in the realm of cyber-NLP, for example, responding to social engineering attacks and detecting indicators of influence. She has an affiliate appointment at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, is Professor Emerita at the University of Maryland, former program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and former president of the Association for Computational Linguistics. She is a Sloan Fellow, NSF Presidential Faculty (PECASE) Fellow, AAAI Fellow, ACL Fellow, and ACM Fellow. In 2020 she was named by DARPA to the Information Science and Technology (ISAT) Study Group. She holds a Master's and a Ph.D. in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with a Bachelor's degree in computer science from Boston University.