2024   /   CoDesign @ Ten

|   January to September 2024   |

   TRAINING SCHOOL   >   REPRESENTATION MEDIATED MULTIMODALITY
EU COST ACTION Multi3Generation  /  @University of Malta, Malta - Jan 30 to Feb 2 2024   

   WORKSHOP   >   ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND COGNITION
Europe (venue and dates to be confirmed)   

   TUTORIAL   >   COGNITIVE VISION AND PERCEPTION
Asia (venue and dates to be confirmed)   

   (MULTI-YEAR) SPECIAL TRACK   >   HUMAN-CENTRED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI). 1st Track: IJCAI 2024, Jeju Aug 3-9 2024   

   INSTITUTE 2024   >   ARTIFICIAL AND HUMAN INTELLIGENCE
@Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany - Sep 22-27 2024   

The training school on ``Representation Mediated Multimodality'' provides a consolidated perspective on the theoretical, methodological, and applied understanding of representation mediated multimodal sensemaking at the interface of language, knowledge representation and reasoning, and visuo-auditory computing. Intended purposes -addressed in the school- encompass diverse operative needs such as explainable multimodal commonsense understanding, multimodal generation/synthesis for communication, multimodal summarisation, multimodal interpretation guided decision-support, adaptation & autonomy, and analytical visualisation.

At the heart of the thematic focus of the school are the themes of grounding and grounded meaning-making:

linguistic expressions and/or relational categorisations are called grounded when they are linked to non-linguistic, especially quantitative perceptual data, such as information coming from modalities such as vision and audition in space-time. Such perceptual data could pertain to, for instance, dynamic spatio-temporal phenomena both in an embodied as well as disembodied interaction context. Grounding is in essence a key aspect of semiotic construction, e.g., enabling high-level meaning acquisition, analogy, and has been a long-standing challenge in Artificial Intelligence and related disciplines.

The training school particularly consolidates and presents a novel and emerging view of state-of-the-art multimodal, neurosymbolic grounding primarily through a confluence of methods in Artficial Intelligence, Computational Linguistics, Vision, Speech and their impact on interactional and communicative acts/artefacts in everyday life and specialist professional work. Here, multimodal interpretation is to be construed in the context of diverse forms of imagery, e.g., encompassing perceptual and communicative data sources such as image, video, language, audition, text, eye-tracking, neurophysiological markers in behavioural / clinical settings.
In this backdrop, the training school particularly focusses on grounded knowledge representation, reasoning, and learning (for linguistic purposes) through the following emerging research-driven themes that are of high interest:

• Space and Language
• Computational Linguistics
• Cognitive Linguistics
• Cognitive Vision
• Vision and Language
• Neurosymbolism
• Narrative - Discourse
• Computational Models of Narrative
• Speech and Language Technologies
• Human-Centred AI

The principal training school programme --consisting of keynotes, invited talks, and tutorials-- will categorically address questions such as:

• Explainability and transparency in multimodal models
• Neurosymbolism / Interaction between symbolic & sub-symbolic representations in models
• Commonsense knowledge representation and reasoning, and its role in multimodal models
• Complementarity / redundancy among data sources or modalities
• Situated reasoning, e.g., for language generation, decision-making

   TRAINING SCHOOL   >   REPRESENTATION MEDIATED MULTIMODALITY
EU COST ACTION Multi3Generation  /  @University of Malta, Malta - Jan 30 - Feb 2 2024.  /  JOIN US!   

The tutorial on cognitive vision addresses computational vision and perception at the interface of language, logic, cognition, and artificial intelligence. The tutorial focusses on application areas where the processing and explainable semantic interpretation of (potentially large volumes of) dynamic visuospatial imagery is central, e.g., for commonsense scene understanding; visual cognition for cognitive robotics / HRI, autonomous driving; narrative interpretation from the viewpoints of visuoauditory perception & digital media design, semantic interpretation of multimodal human-behavioural data.

The tutorial highlights Deep (Visuospatial) Semantics, denoting the existence of systematically formalised declarative AI methods --e.g., pertaining to reasoning about space and motion-- supporting semantic (visual) question-answering, relational learning, non-monotonic (visuospatial) abduction, and simulation of embodied interaction. The tutorial demonstrates the integration of methods from knowledge representation and computer vision with a focus on (combining) reasoning & learning about space, action, motion, and interaction. This is presented in the backdrop of areas as diverse as autonomous driving, cognitive robotics, eye-tracking driven visual perception research (e.g., for visual art, architecture design, cognitive film studies), and psychology & behavioural research domains where data-centred analytical methods are gaining momentum. The tutorial covers both applications and basic methods concerned with topics such as: explainable visual perception, semantic video understanding, language generation from video, declarative spatial reasoning, and computational models of narrative. The tutorial will position an emerging line of research that brings together a novel \& unique combination of research methodologies, academics, and communities encompassing AI, ML, Vision, Cognitive Linguistics, Psychology, Visual Perception, and Spatial Cognition and Computation.

   Exact venue and dates to be announced in due course   

IJCAI, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence Series, is the premier international gathering of researchers in AI. The 33rd edition of IJCAI in 2024 is to be held during August 3-9 2024 in Jeju (South Korea).

• recognise and articulate a nuanced view of computational intelligence in relation to the depth, diversity and multi-faceted nature of `human intelligence’ in naturalistic real-world problem solving, or in everyday human activity contexts.


• concretely address the practical `design implications’ emanating from the (human-centric) cognitive, social, ethical and legal dimensions driving AI and ML method development. By design, implied are questions pertaining to the human-centric engineering, deployment, usability, evaluation, and standardisation of AI/ML techniques.

Insitute 2024 on Artificial and Human Intelligence will held during September 22 - 27 2024 at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany.

• formal and computational foundations of next-generation AI and cognitive technologies with a principal emphasis on human-centred knowledge representation, semantics, commonsense reasoning, and integration of reasoning & learning. A key focus is reasoning & learning about space, action and motion in human-scale embodied multimodal interactions.
• behavioural research in cognitive science & psychology and neuroscience aimed at investigating human intelligence from the viewpoints of embodiment, multimodal interaction, and visuospatial thinking. Special emphasis is on aspects pertaining to visual perception, high-level event perception, inattention blindness, perception of motion, and narrative-based perceptual sensemaking.