Exploring NLP Advancements: Addressing Biases and Human Values in Large Language Models
Abstract: This talk will introduce the Natural Language and Text Processing Lab (NLTP) at Utrecht University (https://nlp.sites.uu.nl/), highlighting its focus on applications of NLP and large language models. The lab conducts cutting-edge research, exploring various domains where NLP can be transformative. An overview of selected ongoing projects will be given, showing how advanced NLP techniques are used to solve real-world problems. The second part of the talk will focus on a recent study investigating the sensitivity of large language models to human values and biases. These models often reflect societal and cultural biases present in their training data. While previous research has shown that monolingual models can exhibit moral biases, there is a gap in understanding how these biases manifest in different cultural contexts. This study investigates the extent to which monolingual and multilingual models encode knowledge of moral norms from different countries. Explainable NLP tools are used to interpret the inferences made by these models, providing insights into how they incorporate and reflect moral variation across cultures.
Short bio: Dr. Ayoub Bagheri is Associate Professor of NLP and Data Science at the Department of Methods and Statistics at Utrecht University. He leads the NLTP lab, which focuses on NLP and AI methods applied to textual data. His main interests include fundamental research in text mining and NLP, with particular emphasis on areas such as bias and personality detection, explainable AI, large language models, and practical applications of language models in computational social sciences and health research. Dr. Bagheri is a board member of the Utrecht Young Academy (UYA) and the Centre for Unusual Collaborations in the Netherlands. He is one of the general chairs of BNAIC/BeNeLearn 2024 and a regular committee member in various NLP conferences, including ACL, LREC-COLING, ECAI and EMNLP.
Presenter: Prof. Ayoub Bagheri
Date: 2024-07-11 10:15 (CEST)
Location: Distrito Digital 5, Muelle Pte., 5 – Edificio D, Alicante 03001, Alicante ES
This talk is part of the Distinguishes Lectures Mini-Workshop.