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Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: Tutorial Abstracts - ACL Anthology

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Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: Tutorial Abstracts Samhaa R. El-Beltagy , Xipeng Qiu (Editors) Anthology ID: 2022.emnlp-tutorials Month: December Year: 2022 Address: Abu Dubai, UAE Venue: EMNLP SIG: Publisher: Association for Computational Linguistics URL: https://aclanthology.org/2022.emnlp-tutorials/ DOI: 10.18653/v1/2022.emnlp-tutorials Bib Export formats: BibTeX MODS XML EndNote PDF: https://aclanthology.org/2022.emnlp-tutorials.pdf PDF (full) Bib TeX Search Show all abstracts Hide all abstracts pdf bib Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing: Tutorial Abstracts Samhaa R. El-Beltagy | Xipeng Qiu pdf bib abs Meaning Representations for Natural Languages: Design, Models and Applications Jeffrey Flanigan | Ishan Jindal | Yunyao Li | Tim O’Gorman | Martha Palmer | Nianwen Xue This tutorial reviews the design of common meaning representations, SoTA models for predicting meaning representations, and the applications of meaning representations in a wide range of downstream NLP tasks and real-world applications. Reporting by a diverse team of NLP researchers from academia and industry with extensive experience in designing, building and using meaning representations, our tutorial has three components: (1) an introduction to common meaning representations, including basic concepts and design challenges; (2) a review of SoTA methods on building models for meaning representations; and (3) an overview of applications of meaning representations in downstream NLP tasks and real-world applications. We will also present qualitative comparisons of common meaning representations and a quantitative study on how their differences impact model performance. Finally, we will share best practices in choosing the right meaning representation for downstream tasks. pdf bib abs A rabic Natural Language Processing Nizar Habash The Arabic language continues to be the focus of an increasing number of projects in natural language processing (NLP) and computational linguistics (CL). This tutorial provides NLP/CL system developers and researchers (computer scientists and linguists alike) with the necessary background information for working with Arabic in its various forms: Classical, Modern Standard and Dialectal. We discuss various Arabic linguistic phenomena and review the state-of-the-art in Arabic processing from enabling technologies and resources, to common tasks and applications. The tutorial will explain important concepts, common wisdom, and common pitfalls in Arabic processing. Given the wide range of possible issues, we invite tutorial attendees to bring up interesting challenges and problems they are working on to discuss during the tutorial. pdf bib abs Emergent Language-Based Coordination In Deep Multi-Agent Systems Marco Baroni | Roberto Dessi | Angeliki Lazaridou Large pre-trained deep networks are the standard building blocks of modern AI applications. This raises fundamental questions about how to control their behaviour and how to make them efficiently interact with each other. Deep net emergent communication tackles these challenges by studying how to induce communication protocols between neural network agents, and how to include humans in the communication loop. Traditionally, this research had focussed on relatively small-scale experiments where two networks had to develop a discrete code from scratch for referential communication. However, with the rise of large pre-trained language models that can work well on many tasks, the emphasis is now shifting on how to let these models interact through a language-like channel to engage in more complex behaviors. By reviewing several representative papers, we will provide an introduction to deep net emergent communication, we will cover various central topics from the present and recent past, as well as discussing current shortcomings and suggest future directions. The presentation is complemented by a hands-on section where participants will implement and analyze two emergent communications setups from the literature. The tutorial should be of interest to researchers wanting to develop more flexible AI systems, but also to cognitive scientists and linguists interested in the evolution of communication systems. pdf bib abs C ausal NLP Tutorial: An Introduction to Causality for Natural Language Processing Zhijing Jin | Amir Feder | Kun Zhang Causal inference is becoming an increasingly important topic in deep learning, with the potential to help with critical deep learning problems such as model robustness, interpretability, and fairness. In addition, causality is naturally widely used in various disciplines of science, to discover causal relationships among variables and estimate causal effects of interest. In this tutorial, we introduce the fundamentals of causal discovery and causal effect estimation to the natural language processing (NLP) audience, provide an overview of causal perspectives to NLP problems, and aim to inspire novel approaches to NLP further. This tutorial is inclusive to a variety of audiences and is expected to facilitate the community’s developments in formulating and addressing new, important NLP problems in light of emerging causal principles and methodologies. pdf bib abs Modular and Parameter-Efficient Fine-Tuning for NLP Models Sebastian Ruder | Jonas Pfeiffer | Ivan Vulić State-of-the-art language models in NLP perform best when fine-tuned even on small datasets, but due to their increasing size, fine-tuning and downstream usage have become extremely compute-intensive. Being able to efficiently and effectively fine-tune the largest pre-trained models is thus key in order to reap the benefits of the latest advances in NLP. In this tutorial, we provide a comprehensive overview of parameter-efficient fine-tuning methods. We highlight their similarities and differences by presenting them in a unified view. We explore the benefits and usage scenarios of a neglected property of such parameter-efficient models—modularity—such as composition of modules to deal with previously unseen data conditions. We finally highlight how both properties——parameter efficiency and modularity——can be useful in the real-world setting of adapting pre-trained models to under-represented languages and domains with scarce annotated data for several downstream applications. pdf bib abs Non-Autoregressive Models for Fast Sequence Generation Yang Feng | Chenze Shao Autoregressive (AR) models have achieved great success in various sequence generation tasks. However, AR models can only generate target sequence word-by-word due to the AR mechanism and hence suffer from slow inference. Recently, non-autoregressive (NAR) models, which generate all the tokens in parallel by removing the sequential dependencies within the target sequence, have received increasing attention in sequence generation tasks such as neural machine translation (NMT), automatic speech recognition (ASR), and text to speech (TTS). In this tutorial, we will provide a comprehensive introduction to non-autoregressive sequence generation.

Executive Summary

The Proceedings of the 2022 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing (EMNLP) Tutorial Abstracts offer a comprehensive overview of cutting-edge research and tutorials presented at the conference. The proceedings cover a diverse range of topics, including meaning representations in natural languages, Arabic natural language processing, and emergent language-based coordination in deep multi-agent systems. The tutorials are designed to provide both theoretical foundations and practical applications, making them valuable for researchers, academics, and industry professionals in the field of computational linguistics and natural language processing.

Key Points

  • The proceedings feature tutorials on various aspects of natural language processing and computational linguistics.
  • Topics include meaning representations, Arabic NLP, and emergent language-based coordination in multi-agent systems.
  • The tutorials are authored by leading experts in the field, providing both theoretical and practical insights.

Merits

Comprehensive Coverage

The proceedings cover a wide range of topics, ensuring that readers gain a broad understanding of current research and applications in NLP.

Expert Contributions

The tutorials are authored by renowned experts, ensuring high-quality and authoritative content.

Practical Applications

The tutorials not only provide theoretical foundations but also practical applications, making them valuable for both academic and industry professionals.

Demerits

Limited Depth

The abstracts provide a high-level overview but lack detailed discussions, which might be necessary for a deeper understanding of the topics.

Focused Scope

The proceedings are focused on specific areas of NLP, which may not cover all aspects of the field, potentially limiting their applicability to broader research areas.

Expert Commentary

The Proceedings of the 2022 EMNLP Tutorial Abstracts offer a valuable snapshot of the current state of research in natural language processing and computational linguistics. The tutorials cover a diverse range of topics, from the theoretical foundations of meaning representations to the practical applications of Arabic NLP and multi-agent systems. The contributions from leading experts in the field ensure that the content is both authoritative and insightful. However, the abstracts provide a high-level overview and may lack the depth required for a comprehensive understanding of the topics. The proceedings are particularly useful for researchers and industry professionals looking to stay updated on the latest developments in NLP. They also serve as a valuable resource for educational institutions aiming to update their curricula. The practical applications discussed in the tutorials can inform real-world NLP tasks and applications, while the theoretical insights can guide policy decisions related to the deployment of NLP technologies.

Recommendations

  • Researchers and industry professionals should use the proceedings to stay informed about the latest developments in NLP and computational linguistics.
  • Educational institutions should incorporate the insights from the tutorials into their curricula to ensure that students are exposed to cutting-edge research and applications in NLP.

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