Causal Influence Diagrams for Mechanistically Explaining and Verifying Data Flow in LLM Systems

Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming various aspects of our existence, spanning language, healthcare, finance, transportation, manufacturing, entertainment, and education. Yet, many voices around these topics often originate from a narrow perspective, frequently the Western-centric, popular trends, sidelining other perspectives (for example, voices in under-resourced, marginalized communities).

We are dedicated to cultivating a rich and impactful experience for all. Our community welcomes everyone, ranging from students and beginners or experts in fields like NLP, linguistics, social sciences, arts, humanities, natural sciences, and more, to senior researchers, lecturers, engineers, scientists, startup founders, investors, and other stakeholders.

Our commitment to inclusivity ensures that each participant’s unique expertise contributes to a comprehensive and enlightening exchange of knowledge.

There are many things you can give a presentation on.

Here are some examples:

• a research you are working on (whether it is finished or a work in progress)
• some projects you or your organization/institution did/is doing involving African languages
• a pitching session (for example a 5 min pitch after which you get the opinions of the audience)
• a dataset you created (no matter how small)
• thesis presentations (Bachelors, Masters, PhD)
• a talk about a critical question and follow up discussions
• a coding tutorial (for example a project you did on translation or ASR from English to an African language.
• a deep dive into some theory
• a linguistics focused session
• any more ideas you may have

There are several advantages you get from giving a talk here:

• advertising your work/research: you especially benefit from a diverse audience involving both people in your field of research and people in other fields -an audience made up of students, researchers, engineers, linguists, etc. This enables you to get very useful, diverse feedback. Also, sharing what you are doing is the best way to get the world to know and benefit from your efforts.
• finding collaboration and/or funding opportunities for your project/research/idea.
• getting useful feedback: a unique feature of this space is that you also get to meet indigenous communities in Africa and beyond who might be directly impacted by your project (and therefore are best positioned to give you useful feedback).
• putting your work (or yourself) on the map: as we record all talks and put them on YouTube, your effort will be somewhere easily accessible many years later!
• practicing a conference/workshop talk: this can be a good venue to practice a presentation you plan to give at another venue. Practice makes perfect!

• you learn and expand your knowledge: by attending this talk, you get to know about important contributions, ideas, resources, etc. in the space of African languages. For the first time, there is a place for people from different fields (linguistics, science, philosophy, cultural studies, NLP, computer scientists, etc.) to learn from one another.
• networking opportunities: this offers you the opportunity to meet people from different parts of the world, working on exciting topics involving African languages. All this can lead to getting project/research collaborations, internships and other job opportunities.

That’s wonderful! We are looking forward to questions.

Send us an email: [email protected]