What's Behind Text? The Long, Challenging Path Towards a Unified Language-Independent Representation of Meaning

Zoom meeting link: https://Universityofexeter.zoom.us/j/93707609239?pwd=ErfOgIy30fwkAH7V5iFFVgA0EC86QU.1(Meeting ID: 937 0760 9239 Password: 259613)

Abstract

In the era of Large Language Models (LLMs), the pursuit of a unified, language-independent representation of meaning remains both essential and complex. This talk revisits the rationale for advancing semantic understanding beyond the capabilities of LLMs and highlights the development of a large-scale multilingual inter-task resource like MOSAICo and the design of innovative methods that bridge word- and sentence-level meanings across languages. I will also explore how building a robust, multilingual framework for interpreting meaning with greater precision and depth enhances the quality and reliability of system outputs, including text generated by LLMs.

Speaker's short bio: Roberto Navigli is Professor of Natural Language Processing at the Sapienza University of Rome, where he leads the Sapienza NLP Group. He has received two ERC grants on lexical and sentence-level multilingual semantics, highlighted among the 15 projects through which the ERC transformed science. He received several prizes, including two Artificial Intelligence Journal prominent paper awards and several outstanding/best paper awards from ACL. He is the co-founder of Babelscape, a successful deep-tech company which enables NLU in dozens of languages. He served as Associate Editor of the Artificial Intelligence Journal (2013-2020) and Program Co-Chair of ACL-IJCNLP 2021. He is a Fellow of ACL, ELLIS and EurAI and currently serves as General Chair of ACL 2025.

Upcoming seminars:
· Vered Shwartz (December 12, 2024, 4-5pm BST)

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