The 107th ICREA Colloquium ‘So far, so close: Two illustrations of how languages and their speakers adapt to their communicative niche’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professor Dan Dediu, from Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and Research Professor François Pellegrino, from CNRS Lyon
When: 24th of October 2023, 18:00h
Where: Zoom & Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
In these two talks we will argue that linguistic diversity is not some sort of irrelevant "noise" grafted on a universal abstract structure, but that, instead, diversity is highly patterned and scientifically relevant. "True" universals are rare and, just like in biology, they emerge from diversity through evolution, in this case, cultural evolution. One such possible universal concerns the finding that the rate at which information is transmitted tends to be the same across very different languages, resulting from a fundamental trade-off between speech rate (how fast a language is spoken by its speakers) and information density (determined by the language's structure). This trade-off shows, in our view, that the speakers and the language are two inseparable sides of the same coin, and that constrains resulting from our speech organs, hearing and cognition act on language, forcing it to adapt to fit an optimal region of the communicative niche. Switching to differences between languages, we will marshal a number of examples of languages that do or do not have a certain feature (a specific word for blue, or sounds such as "f" and "v") because of the environment they are spoken in (how much ultraviolet light there is?) or by whom they are spoken (what kind of food do their speakers eat?). We will argue that such patterns of diversity, just like in biology, reflect adaptation to different constraints and affordances, only that in this case we are speaking of cultural entities evolving culturally.
While such ideas are far from being new, the recent explosion in the availability of cross-linguistic data, of extremely powerful statistical methods and affordable computing power, and the increased cross-disciplinary collaborations have all conspired in making possible a "silent paradigm shift" in the language sciences.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
The 106th ICREA Colloquium ‘Pay No Attention to That Man Behind the Curtain: Bias and Opacity in Artificial Intelligence’
Speakers: ICREA Research Professors Marco Baroni and Carlos Castillo, both from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
When: 27th of June 2023, 18:00h
Where: Zoom & Auditorium FCRI, Passeig de Lluís Companys, 23, 08010 Barcelona
Abstract:
As AI systems start being deployed in a large number of everyday contexts, it is particularly important to study the transparency and trustfulness of these systems from different perspectives.
In the first part of our joint talk, we will consider whether AI systems can have disadvantageous consequences for people based on the social group to which they belong, i.e., whether AI can engage in indirect discrimination, specifically statistical group discrimination. We will consider various examples of this phenomenon, which seems quite pervasive and particularly affects high-risk applications of AI, such as those related to housing, employment, and the administration of justice.
In the second part, we will consider to what extent large AI systems trained to "speak English" by being exposed to large amounts of text are really understanding natural language like humans do, and to what extent they have instead developed an alternative communication code that is only superficially resembling English. We will discuss some surprising results that suggest that the second hypothesis is correct, and the implications that this might have in terms of the usability and safety of these systems.
The ICREA colloquia are a great way to learn about remote fields of research from our best experts. We usually have two speakers, who offer their opinions on the same subject from different angles. They are open to all ICREAs and their guests.
Conference ‘The coming decades of quantum simulation’
ICREA Research Professor at ICFO Maciej Lewenstein will give a talk with the title ‘The coming decades of quantum simulation’.
The event is organized by the Institut d’Estudis Catalans (IEC), as part of a cycle of conferences entitled «Dijous de ciència i tecnologia 2023»,
and it will be held on May 11th 2023 at 6:30 pm at Carrer del Carme, 47, 08001 Barcelona.
You can also view the conference live, via Zoom or YouTube.
For further information please click here.
Workshop ‘Credit, diversity, and research quality in science’
Prof. Joshua Shepherd, who will become an ICREA Research Professor in May 2023, will be hosting the workshop entitled ‘Credit, diversity, and research quality in science’.
This workshop will address credit assignment in science – who gets credit for which discoveries and achievements – and how credit assignment impacts and is impacted by [a] collaboration, [b] assessments of research quality, and [c] issues of diversity, equality, and inclusion.
DATE: April 15, 2023
FORMAT: Hybrid (register for zoom link, or to indicate physical attendance)
LOCATION: Artchimboldi (C/ Rosselló, 231, 2nd Floor, Barcelona)
SCHEDULE:
09:30h – 09:45h Introductions and Coffee
09:45h – 11:00h Katie Plaisance and Sara Doody (Waterloo),
What “Counts” as Good Science? Reflections from Scientists & Engineers about their Collaborations with Philosophers of Science
11:00h – 11:15h Coffee break
11:15h – 12:30h Hannah Rubin (Missouri),
Structural Causes of Citation Gaps
12:30h – 14:30h Lunch (on site)
14:30h – 16:00h Panel discussion
HOST:
- Joshua Shepherd (Carleton/UB)
DISCUSSANTS:
- Megan Peters (UC-Irvine),
- Adeel Razi (Monash),
- Sahba Besharati (Witwatersrand),
- Rafaella Margutti (UC-Berkeley),
- Eric Mandelbaum (CUNY)
HOSTS/PIs:
Rafaella Margutti (UC-Berkeley) and Joshua Shepherd (Carleton/University of Barcelona)
FUNDED BY:
CIFAR (Canadian Institute for Advanced Research) Catalyst grant (‘Discovery, re-discovered’)
To register: e-mail joshualshep@gmail.com, and indicate on-line or in-person (space is limited)
