<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><div class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(80,0,80)"><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(0,0,0);vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><b>When:</b>    </font></font><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><font style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">    Fri</font><span class="gmail_default" style="color:rgb(0,0,0)">day, March 22<span class="gmail_default">, </span>2024</span><font style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"> at</font><b style="color:rgb(0,0,0)"> <u><font style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">11:00</font></u></b><b><u><font color="#000000" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)"> a</font></u></b><b><u><font color="#000000" style="background-color:rgb(255,255,0)">m CT</font></u><font color="#000000">   </font></b></font></font><br></div><div class="gmail_default"><p style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;margin:0px"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><font color="#500050"><br></font></b></p><p style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:normal;margin:0px"><b style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><font color="#500050">Where:       </font></b><font color="#000000" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">Talk will be given </font><font color="#000000" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-weight:bold"><u>live, in-person</u></font><font style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-weight:bold"> </font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">at</span><br></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><font color="#500050">               </font><font color="#000000">    TTIC, 6045 S. Kenwood Avenue</font></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif" color="#000000">                   5th Floor, Room 529</font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b><span style="color:black"><br></span></b></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b style="color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px">Virtually:</b><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px">   <i>via </i></span></font><a href="https://uchicago.zoom.us/j/98297764499?pwd=ajNQSTZnMHRmMENkd1hjdjlNeW1xdz09" target="_blank"><b>zoom</b></a><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px"><font face="arial, sans-serif"></font><font face="georgia, serif"><b><font size="1">                        </font></b></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;color:rgb(80,0,80);line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><span style="color:rgb(60,64,67);letter-spacing:0.2px"><font face="arial, sans-serif"></font><font face="georgia, serif"><b><font size="1">                     </font></b></font></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;line-height:normal;background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial"><font style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:arial,sans-serif;vertical-align:inherit"><font style="vertical-align:inherit"><b>Who: </b> <font color="#500050">    </font><font color="#000000"><font color="#500050">    </font></font></font></font>Zhewei Sun, University of Toronto</p></div></div><div class="gmail_default"><div dir="ltr"><div style="font-size:small"><div class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="margin:0in 0in 8pt;text-align:center;line-height:15.6933px;font-size:11pt;font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><hr size="3" width="100%" noshade align="center" style="color:rgb(46,116,181)"></div></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span id="m_6181213633842837151m_5796972456195729820m_8834923102230272884gmail-docs-internal-guid-d88667ea-7fff-106d-1a2b-cffcce23f596"><b style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Title:         </b><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Contextualizing Natural Language Agents: The Case of Slang</span><br><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> </span><br><b style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Abstract: </b></span></font><span style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:arial,sans-serif">Large language models (LLMs) have recently emerged as an effective tool for enhancing human productivity. Although conversational artificial intelligence (AI) agents such as ChatGPT produces natural language that is much more human-like compared to its predecessors, they still lack the ability to situate themselves in a communicative context like humans do. For instance, humans may opt to use informal language such as slang in a conversation to express a close bond with the other party. In this talk, I will illustrate how natural language processing (NLP) techniques can enable automatic processing of slang. The first part of my talk will cover knowledge-driven approaches that inject linguistic and cognitive knowledge about slang into foundational NLP models for (1) generation, (2) interpretation, and (3) modeling slang semantic variation. Next, I will discuss emerging data-driven approaches based on large language models, examining the extent of knowledge LLMs have acquired about slang and how such knowledge may have been obtained. Finally, I will discuss potential future directions to further enhance an LLM’s ability to process contextualized language.</span><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span><b style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)"><br></b></span><br><b style="background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Bio: </b></font><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Zhewei </span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)">Sun</span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif;background-color:transparent;color:rgb(0,0,0)"> is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, working with Professor Yang Xu. His research is focused on natural language processing (NLP) of informal language, with a particular interest in the automatic processing of slang. His research explores both data-driven NLP approaches based on deep learning, as well as knowledge-driven approaches that combine traditional NLP techniques with linguistic and cognitive knowledge about human language. His work has been recognized at top-tier NLP venues, including EMNLP, NAACL, and TACL. Zhewei’s work has been supported in part by Amazon Alexa AI and the Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship in Science and Technology. Prior to joining the University of Toronto, Zhewei received an M.Sc. in Computer Science from Georgia Institute of Technology and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.</span><p style="line-height:1.38;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt"><span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);background-color:transparent;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-variant-alternates:normal;vertical-align:baseline"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><br></font></span></p></div></div><div style="font-size:small"><div id="m_6181213633842837151m_3549776729685312494m_8446205837173851621m_8555462040290332708m_6451956535360448322m_-6976229087647104413m_7917979885129397482m_-5423657134431402203m_-1337599008586739890m_8237382617653311322m_-1231130334284673048m_-1282025577005441955m_-1973358356214118865m_-5815637555669013367m_1779572315514282115m_-4485402625451270420m_1520697528942856564m_5948359943660736735m_-4789039193346764527m_3599676094611771654m_8264976978369198918m_7474850050874458051m_5107577024390010371m_253820422674989860m_3983419646637522536m_-7220900540036838011gmail-:qg" role="button" aria-label="Show trimmed content" aria-expanded="false"><font face="arial, sans-serif"><b>Host: </b><a href="mailto:jzhou@ttic.edu" target="_blank"><b>Jiawei Zhou</b></a></font></div></div></div></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-size:small"><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:x-small">Mary C. Marre</span><br></div><div><div><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">Faculty Administrative Support</font></div><div><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6" size="1"><b>Toyota Technological Institute</b></font></i></div><div><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6" size="1">6045 S. Kenwood Avenue, Rm 517</font></i></div><div><font size="1"><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6">Chicago, IL  60637</font></i><br></font></div><div><font size="1"><i><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" color="#3d85c6">773-834-1757</font></i></font></div><div><b><i><a href="mailto:mmarre@ttic.edu" target="_blank"><font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">mmarre@ttic.edu</font></a></i></b></div></div></div></div></div></div>