We have outstanding keynote talks included in the programme for SIGDIAL 2024.
Zhou Yu
AI Agents Beyond ChatGPT
Abstract:
ChatGPT has significantly raised public expectations for conversational agents, with many now anticipating these agents to handle a wide range of tasks. However, deploying one single larger model with generalized capabilities is often impractical, in terms of accuracy, cost, and security, particularly in industry settings. Solving specific tasks requires a systematic combination of different models to form workflows. In this talk, we will explore various approaches to developing smaller, open-source models that can power AI agents to perform specialized tasks more effectively, using diverse fine-tuning techniques. In addition, we will talk about how AI Agent frameworks such as reflection could be applied in smaller model settings.
Short Bio:
Zhou(Jo) Yu is an Associate Professor at Columbia University’s Computer Science Department. She obtained her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Yu has received several best paper awards in top NLP conferences and has won Forbes 30 under 30 in 2018. Dr. Yu has developed various dialog system applications that have had a real impact, including winning the Amazon Alexa Prize. Dr. Yu co-founded Articualte.ai INC, democratizing AI Agent building with GenAI developer tools.
Koji Inoue
Yeah, Well, Haha: Generating Non-linguistic Behaviors For Human-like Conversational Robots
Abstract:
The rise of multimodal large language models (MLLMs) has notably enhanced the capabilities of spoken dialogue systems and conversational robots, paving the way for practical applications. Yet, these models still struggle with specific non-linguistic behaviors crucial for the fluidity and dynamism of human conversations. This keynote will delve into these essential behaviors—such as backchanneling, laughter, and turn-taking—tracing the evolution of research from early studies to the latest Transformer-based models. The discussion will also address the persistent challenges in spoken dialogue research, aiming to advance human-like conversational robots in the era of evolving MLLMs.
Short Bio:
Koji Inoue received his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Informatics, Kyoto University, Japan, in 2018. He is currently an assistant professor at Kyoto University. In 2023, he was a visiting researcher at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden. His research team has developed a spoken dialogue system for the android ERICA. He was awarded the NETEXPLO Innovation 2022 Award.
The keynote speech of Justine Cassell was canceled due to an emergency reason.