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Computer Science @ Rochester
Monday, December 08, 2008
11:00 AM
Computer Studies Bldg. Room 209
Peter Clark
The Boeing Company
Some Explorations in using World Knowledge to improve Text Understanding
One reason text understanding is hard is because only a fraction of the knowledge the author intended to convey is explicitly stated. As a result, for computers to correctly interpret text and "fill in the gaps", a vast amount of lexical and world knowledge is needed. This challenge is present both in the small (Does a sentence reasonably follow from a text? The task of recognizing textual entailment), and in the large (What is a coherent representation of multiple texts about the same topic?). In this talk I will present some of our forays at Boeing into this task, in particular the Recognizing Texual Entailment challenge, in which we attempt to leverage three vast sources of knowledge (WordNet, 12 million paraphrases, and 55 million "tuples"). I will discuss what worked, what didn't, and tentatively suggest some further small steps forward toward the AI dream of machines that can read for themselves.

Bio: Peter Clark is an Associate Technical Fellow in Boeing's Network Systems Technology Organization in Seattle, WA, where he leads projects in the areas of knowledge-based systems, commonsense reasoning, and natural language processing, including for Vulcan's Project Halo and previously for IARPA's AQUAINT Program.

Refreshment will be provided at 10:45AM