Workshop: Uphill Battles in Language Technology

虽然最近基于大量数据的机器学习的自然语言处理(NLP)方法提供了宝贵的技术，但这种成功掩盖了更早、更有远见的目标，即让计算机理解故事，参与与人的自然、合作对话，并将文本和演讲从一种人类语言流畅而准确地翻译成另一种人类语言。因此，这次研讨会强调了将这些早期有远见的目标重新纳入视野的价值。研讨会的特点是，知名研究人员在语音和语言处理的一个主要子领域开展了早期工作，并与参与重大新想法和/或方法的年轻研究人员进行了有节制的公开对话。研讨会分为四期，每期由一名主持人和特邀演讲者主持，主题为对话和演讲、自然语言生成、文本理解和扎根语言。通过事先征求潜在与会者的问题以及听众的即兴问题来丰富每一节课的对话。研讨会包括研究生抄写员，他们合作发表每一次会议的摘要，并举行海报会议，突出学生的研究。除了研讨会的程序外，研讨会的成果是一份基于演讲者提供的笔记和学生抄写员的会议摘要的公开报告。

While recent approaches to Natural Language Processing (NLP) based onmachine learning from large quantities of data have delivered valuabletechnology, this success has obscured earlier, more visionary goals ofgetting computers to understand stories, to engage in natural,cooperative dialogues with people, and to translate text and speechfluently and accurately from one human language to another. As such,this workshop highlights the value of bringing these early visionarygoals back into view. The workshop features established researchers who carriedout early work in a major sub-field of speech and language processingengaging in a moderated public dialogue with younger researchersinvolved with significant new ideas and/or methods. The workshop isorganized into four sessions, each with a moderator and invitedspeakers, on the topics of Dialogue and Speech, Natural LanguageGeneration, Text Understanding, and Grounded Language. Dialogue ineach session is enriched through questions solicited beforehand fromprospective attendees, as well as impromptu questions from theaudience. The workshop includes graduate student scribes whocollaborate to deliver a summary of each session, and a poster sessionhighlights the students' research. In addition to the workshopproceedings, the workshop's outcome is a public report based on notescontributed by the speakers and the session summaries produced by theteam of student scribes.