BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//128.220.36.25//NONSGML kigkonsult.se iCalcreator 2.26.9// CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-FROM-URL:https://www.clsp.jhu.edu X-WR-TIMEZONE:America/New_York BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York X-LIC-LOCATION:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20231105T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RDATE:20241103T020000 TZNAME:EST END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20240310T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RDATE:20250309T020000 TZNAME:EDT END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:ai1ec-21280@www.clsp.jhu.edu DTSTAMP:20240328T112656Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-US:Seminars CONTACT: DESCRIPTION:Abstract\nAs AI-driven language interfaces (such as chat-bots) become more integrated into our lives\, they need to become more versatile and reliable in their communication with human users. How can we make pro gress toward building more “general” models that are capable of understand ing a broader spectrum of language commands\, given practical constraints such as the limited availability of labeled data?\nIn this talk\, I will d escribe my research toward addressing this question along two dimensions o f generality. First I will discuss progress in “breadth” — models that add ress a wider variety of tasks and abilities\, drawing inspiration from exi sting statistical learning techniques such as multi-task learning. In part icular\, I will showcase a system that works well on several QA benchmarks \, resulting in state-of-the-art results on 10 benchmarks. Furthermore\, I will show its extension to tasks beyond QA (such as text generation or cl assification) that can be “defined” via natural language. In the second p art\, I will focus on progress in “depth” — models that can handle complex inputs such as compositional questions. I will introduce Text Modular Net works\, a general framework that casts problem-solving as natural language communication among simpler “modules.” Applying this framework to composi tional questions by leveraging discrete optimization and existing non-comp ositional closed-box QA models results in a model with strong empirical pe rformance on multiple complex QA benchmarks while providing human-readable reasoning.\nI will conclude with future research directions toward broade r NLP systems by addressing the limitations of the presented ideas and oth er missing elements needed to move toward more general-purpose interactive language understanding systems.\nBiography\nDaniel Khashabi is a postdoct oral researcher at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence (AI2)\, Seattle. Previously\, he completed his Ph.D. in Computer and Information Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. His interests lie at t he intersection of artificial intelligence and natural language processing \, with a vision toward more general systems through unified algorithms an d theories. DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220218T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220218T131500 LOCATION:Ames Hall 234 - Presented Virtually Via Zoom https://wse.zoom.us/j /96735183473 @ 3400 N. Charles Street\, Baltimore\, MD 21218 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Daniel Khashabi (Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence) “The Quest Toward Generality in Natural Language Understanding” URL:https://www.clsp.jhu.edu/events/daniel-khashabi-allen-institute-for-art ificial-intelligence/ X-COST-TYPE:free X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\\n\\n
\\nAbstr act
\nAs AI-driven language interfaces (such as c hat-bots) become more integrated into our lives\, they need to become more versatile and reliable in their communication with human users. How can w e make progress toward building more “general” models that are capable of understanding a broader spectrum of language commands\, given practical co nstraints such as the limited availability of labeled data?
\nIn this talk\, I will describe my research toward addressing this ques tion along two dimensions of generality. First I will discuss progress in “breadth” — models that address a wider variety of tasks and abilities\, d rawing inspiration from existing statistical learning techniques such as m ulti-task learning. In particular\, I will showcase a system that works we ll on several QA benchmarks\, resulting in state-of-the-art results on 10 benchmarks. Furthermore\, I will show its extension to tasks beyond QA (su ch as text generation or classification) that can be “defined” via natural language. In the second part\, I will focus on progress in “depth” — mod els that can handle complex inputs such as compositional questions. I will introduce Text Modular Networks\, a general framework that casts problem- solving as natural language communication among simpler “modules.” Applyin g this framework to compositional questions by leveraging discrete optimiz ation and existing non-compositional closed-box QA models results in a mod el with strong empirical performance on multiple complex QA benchmarks whi le providing human-readable reasoning.
\nI will conclude w ith future research directions toward broader NLP systems by addressing th e limitations of the presented ideas and other missing elements needed to move toward more general-purpose interactive language understanding system s.
\nBiography
\nDaniel Khashabi is a postdoctoral researcher at the Allen Institute for Artificia l Intelligence (AI2)\, Seattle. Previously\, he completed his Ph.D. in Com puter and Information Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. His interests lie at the intersection of artificial intelligence and natur al language processing\, with a vision toward more general systems through unified algorithms and theories.
\n X-TAGS;LANGUAGE=en-US:2022\,February\,Khashabi END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:ai1ec-23320@www.clsp.jhu.edu DTSTAMP:20240328T112656Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-US:Seminars CONTACT: DESCRIPTION:Abstract\nSpeech communications represents a core domain for ed ucation\, team problem solving\, social engagement\, and business interact ions. The ability for Speech Technology to extract layers of knowledge and assess engagement content represents the next generation of advanced spee ch solutions. Today\, the emergence of BIG DATA\, Machine Learning\, as we ll as voice enabled speech systems have required the need for effective vo ice capture and automatic speech/speaker recognition. The ability to emplo y speech and language technology to assess human-to-human interactions off ers new research paradigms having profound impact on assessing human inter action. In this talk\, we will focus on big data naturalistic audio proces sing relating to (i) child learning spaces\, and (ii) the NASA APOLLO luna r missions. ML based technology advancements include automatic audio diari zation\, speech recognition\, and speaker recognition. Child-Teacher based assessment of conversational interactions are explored\, including keywor d and “WH-word” (e.g.\, who\, what\, etc.). Diarization processing solutio ns are applied to both classroom/learning space child speech\, as well as massive APOLLO data. CRSS-UTDallas is expanding our original Apollo-11 cor pus\, resulting in a massive multi-track audio processing challenge to mak e available 150\,000hrs of Apollo mission data to be shared with science c ommunities: (i) speech/language technology\, (ii) STEM/science and team-ba sed researchers\, and (iii) education/historical/archiving specialists. Ou r goals here are to provide resources which allow to better understand how people work/learn collaboratively together. For Apollo\, to accomplish on e of mankind’s greatest scientific/technological challenges in the last ce ntury.\nBiography\nJohn H.L. Hansen\, received Ph.D. & M.S. degrees from G eorgia Institute of Technology\, and B.S.E.E. from Rutgers Univ. He joined Univ. of Texas at Dallas (UTDallas) in 2005\, where he currently serves a s Associate Dean for Research\, Prof. of ECE\, Distinguished Univ. Chair i n Telecom. Engineering\, and directs Center for Robust Speech Systems (CRS S). He is an ISCA Fellow\, IEEE Fellow\, and has served as Member and TC-C hair of IEEE Signal Proc. Society\, Speech & Language Proc. Tech. Comm.(SL TC)\, and Technical Advisor to U.S. Delegate for NATO (IST/TG-01). He serv ed as ISCA President (2017-21)\, continues to serve on ISCA Board (2015-23 ) as Treasurer\, has supervised 99 PhD/MS thesis candidates (EE\,CE\,BME\, TE\,CS\,Ling.\,Cog.Sci.\,Spch.Sci.\,Hear.Sci)\, was recipient of 2020 UT-D allas Provost’s Award for Grad. PhD Research Mentoring\; author/co-author of 865 journal/conference papers including 14 textbooks in the field of sp eech/language/hearing processing & technology including coauthor of textbo ok Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signals\, (IEEE Press\, 2000)\, and lead author of the report “The Impact of Speech Under ‘Stress’ on Military Speech Technology\,” (NATO RTO-TR-10\, 2000). He served as Organizer\, Ch air/Co-Chair/Tech.Chair for ISCA INTERSPEECH-2022\, IEEE ICASSP-2010\, IEE E SLT-2014\, ISCA INTERSPEECH-2002\, and Tech. Chair for IEEE ICASSP-2024. He received the 2022 IEEE Signal Processing Society Leo Beranek MERITORIO US SERVICE Award.\n DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230303T131500 LOCATION:Hackerman Hall B17 @ 3400 N. Charles Street\, Baltimore\, MD 21218 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:John Hansen (University of Texas at Dallas) “Challenges and Advance ments in Speaker Diarization & Recognition for Naturalistic Data Streams” URL:https://www.clsp.jhu.edu/events/john-hansen-university-of-texas-at-dall as/ X-COST-TYPE:free X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\\n\\n\\nAbstr act
\nSpeech communications represents a core domain for ed ucation\, team problem solving\, social engagement\, and business interact ions. The ability for Speech Technology to extract layers of knowledge and assess engagement content represents the next generation of advanced spee ch solutions. Today\, the emergence of BIG DATA\, Machine Learning\, as we ll as voice enabled speech systems have required the need for effective vo ice capture and automatic speech/speaker recognition. The ability to emplo y speech and language technology to assess human-to-human interactions off ers new research paradigms having profound impact on assessing human inter action. In this talk\, we will focus on big data naturalistic audio proces sing relating to (i) child learning spaces\, and (ii) the NASA APOLLO luna r missions. ML based technology advancements include automatic audio diari zation\, speech recognition\, and speaker recognition. Child-Teacher based assessment of conversational interactions are explored\, including keywor d and “WH-word” (e.g.\, who\, what\, etc.). Diarization processing solutio ns are applied to both classroom/learning space child speech\, as well as massive APOLLO data. CRSS-UTDallas is expanding our original Apollo-11 cor pus\, resulting in a massive multi-track audio processing challenge to mak e available 150\,000hrs of Apollo mission data to be shared with science c ommunities: (i) speech/language technology\, (ii) STEM/science and team-ba sed researchers\, and (iii) education/historical/archiving specialists. Ou r goals here are to provide resources which allow to better understand how people work/learn collaboratively together. For Apollo\, to accomplish on e of mankind’s greatest scientific/technological challenges in the last ce ntury.
\nBiography
\nJohn H.L. Hansen\, recei ved Ph.D. & M.S. degrees from Georgia Institute of Technology\, and B.S.E. E. from Rutgers Univ. He joined Univ. of Texas at Dallas (UTDallas) in 200 5\, where he currently serves as Associate Dean for Research\, Prof. of EC E\, Distinguished Univ. Chair in Telecom. Engineering\, and directs Center for Robust Speech Systems (CRSS). He is an ISCA Fellow\, IEEE Fellow\, an d has served as Member and TC-Chair of IEEE Signal Proc. Society\, Speech & Language Proc. Tech. Comm.(SLTC)\, and Technical Advisor to U.S. Delegat e for NATO (IST/TG-01). He served as ISCA President (2017-21)\, continues to serve on ISCA Board (2015-23) as Treasurer\, has supervised 99 PhD/MS t hesis candidates (EE\,CE\,BME\,TE\,CS\,Ling.\,Cog.Sci.\,Spch.Sci.\,Hear.Sc i)\, was recipient of 2020 UT-Dallas Provost’s Award for Grad. PhD Researc h Mentoring\; author/co-author of 865 journal/conference papers including 14 textbooks in the field of speech/language/hearing processing & technolo gy including coauthor of textbook Discrete-Time Processing of Speech Signa ls\, (IEEE Press\, 2000)\, and lead author of the report “The Impact of Sp eech Under ‘Stress’ on Military Speech Technology\,” (NATO RTO-TR-10\, 200 0). He served as Organizer\, Chair/Co-Chair/Tech.Chair for ISCA INTERSPEEC H-2022\, IEEE ICASSP-2010\, IEEE SLT-2014\, ISCA INTERSPEECH-2002\, and Te ch. Chair for IEEE ICASSP-2024. He received the 2022 IEEE Signal Processin g Society Leo Beranek MERITORIOUS SERVICE Award.
\n\n X-TAGS;LANGUAGE=en-US:2023\,Hansen\,March END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT UID:ai1ec-23886@www.clsp.jhu.edu DTSTAMP:20240328T112656Z CATEGORIES;LANGUAGE=en-US:Seminars CONTACT: DESCRIPTION:Abstract\nThe arms race to build increasingly larger\, powerful language models (LMs) in the past year has been remarkable. Yet incorpora ting LMs effectively into practical applications that facilitate manual wo rkflows remains challenging. I will discuss LMs’ limiting factors and our efforts to overcome them. I will start with challenges surrounding efficie nt and robust LM alignment. I will share insights from our recent paper “S elf-Instruct” (ACL 2023)\, where we used vanilla (unaligned) LMs for align ing itself\, an approach that has yielded some success. Then\, I will move on to the challenge of tracing the output of LMs to reliable sources\, a weakness that makes them prone to hallucinations. I will discuss our recen t approach of ‘according-to’ prompting\, which steers LMs to quote directl y from sources observed in its pre-training. If time permits\, I will disc uss our ongoing project to adapt LMs to interact with web pages. Throughou t the presentation\, I will highlight our progress\, and end with question s about our future progress.\nBiography\nDaniel Khashabi is an assistant p rofessor in computer science at Johns Hopkins University and the Center fo r Language and Speech Processing (CLSP) member. He is interested in buildi ng reasoning-driven modular NLP systems that are robust\, transparent\, an d communicative\, particularly those that use natural language as the comm unication medium. Khashabi has published over 40 papers on natural languag e processing and AI in top-tier venues. His work touches upon developing. His research has won the ACL 2023 Outstanding Paper Award\, NAACL 2022 Bes t Paper Award\, research gifts from the Allen Institute for AI\, and an Am azon Research Award 2023. Before joining Hopkins\, he was a postdoctoral f ellow at the Allen Institute for AI (2019-2022) and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20230908T120000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20230908T131500 LOCATION:Hackerman Hall B17 @ 3400 N. Charles Street\, Baltimore\, MD 21218 SEQUENCE:0 SUMMARY:Daniel Khashabi (Johns Hopkins University) “Building More Helpful L anguage Models” URL:https://www.clsp.jhu.edu/events/daniel-khashabi-johns-hopkins-universit y/ X-COST-TYPE:free X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:\\n\\n\\n
Abstr act
\nThe arms race to build increasingly larger\, powerful language models (LMs) in the past year has been remarkable. Yet incorpora ting LMs effectively into practical applications that facilitate manual wo rkflows remains challenging. I will discuss LMs’ limiting factors and our efforts to overcome them. I will start with challenges surrounding efficie nt and robust LM alignment. I will share insights from our recent paper “Self-Instruct” (ACL 2023)\, where we used vanilla (unaligned) LMs for aligning itself\, an approach that has yielded some success. Then\, I will move on to the challenge of t racing the output of LMs to reliable sources\, a weakness that makes them prone to hallucinations. I will discuss our recent approach of ‘according-to’ prompting\, which steers LM s to quote directly from sources observed in its pre-training. If time per mits\, I will discuss our ongoing project to adapt LMs to interact with we b pages. Throughout the presentation\, I will highlight our progress\, and end with questions about our future progress.
\nBiography strong>
\nDaniel Khashabi is an assistant professor in computer science at Johns Hopkins University and the Center for Language and Speech Pr ocessing (CLSP) member. He is interested in building reasoning-driven modu lar NLP systems that are robust\, transparent\, and communicative\, partic ularly those that use natural language as the communication medium. Khasha bi has published over 40 papers on natural language processing and AI in t op-tier venues. His work touches upon developing. His research has won the ACL 2023 Outstanding Paper Award\, NAACL 2022 Best Paper Award\, research gifts from the Allen Institute for AI\, and an Amazon Research Award 2023 . Before joining Hopkins\, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Allen Insti tute for AI (2019-2022) and obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsy lvania in 2019.
\n X-TAGS;LANGUAGE=en-US:2023\,Khashabi\,September END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR