Interdisciplinary expert pool for NLU
Challenges
The development of large language models prompts more challenges than purely technological. Questions of data, representation, fairness, equality, and ethics are implicit and relevant to all projects in AI Sweden’s language technology portfolio and within the NLU/NLP ecosystem more broadly.
This project addresses the lack of a suitable response. So far, resources to tackle these issues in depth have not been readily available within the scope of technological projects. Secondly, the project is a reaction to international (mainly US-centered) debates about the risks and limitations of language models.
Project and expected outcomes
The project aims to leverage the existing knowledge of researchers from the humanities and social sciences as well as civil society actors when needed to solve concrete questions and challenges that arise in the development of foundation models.
AI Sweden will invite subject matter experts to be involved in the development pipeline of foundation models, considering questions regarding the training data and, consequently, the safe deployment as well as the social, cultural, and economic implications of foundation models such as GPT-SW3.
The project’s key innovation is to systematically and at scale involve subject matter experts in the development pipeline of foundation models, leverage existing domain knowledge, and together work on applied challenges and “big” questions based on concrete use cases and needs. The expert pool will provide a platform for knowledge exchange and readily available resources to quickly and effectively tackle data, representativeness, equality, and ethics issues.
The members of the Interdisciplinary Expert Pool for NLU
Researchers and individual members
| Name | Title | University/Organization | Area of interest/discipline |
| Kristy Beers Fägersten | Professor of English Linguistics | Södertörn University | Linguistics, swearing, offensive language |
| Mats Fridlund | Deputy Director | Gothenburg Research Infrastructure in Digital Humanities (GRIDH), University of Gothenburg | Digital history, science and technology studies, digital humanities |
| Erik Winerö | Teacher/PhD-student | University of Gothenburg | Primarily AI's effect on assessment practices in education |
| Ylva Söderfeldt | Associate professor | Uppsala university | History |
| Anna Metreveli | PhD Student | Stockholm University | AI ethics |
| Michał Dzieliński | Assistant professor | Stockholm University | Economics/Finance |
| Jacob Strandell | Consultant, PhD | Ungdomsbarometern AB | Cognitive Sociology |
| Mathilda Åkerlund | Postdoctoral Researcher (Dr.) | Umeå University | Digital sociology; Internet Research; Politics; Far right |
| Eric Orlowski | Doctoral Candidate/Doktorand | University College London/Uppsala University | Social & Cultural Anthropology |
| Jonas Svensson | Professor | Linnaeus university | Study of Religions, Islamic Studies |
| Jenny Björklund | Professor | Uppsala University | Gender Studies |
| Karl Berglund | BUL/Assistant Professor | Department of Literature, Uppsala University | Computational text analysis, especially narrative analysis |
| Jonas Andersson Schwarz | Associate Professor | Södertörn University | Media & communications studies |
| Dimitri Coelho Mollo | Assistant Professor | Umeå University | Philosophy of AI and Cognitive Science |
| Annika Raapke | PhD | Uppsala University | History |
| Mariana S. Gustafsson | Associate professor | Linköping University | Political science and AI: politics, governance, equality, democracy |
| Daniel Brodén | Researcher | University of Gothenburg | Digital humanities |
| Michael McGuire | Research Engineer | University of Gothenburg | Computational Linguistics/Digital Humanities |
| Maria Toledo | Researcher | Independent research | Cultural Heritage, Digital Repositories, Museology, Digital Humanities |
| Dag Blanck | Professor | Uppsala University | History/American Studies |
| Peter Berck | Research Engineer | Lund University | Natural Language Processing |
| Katja Sarajeva | Programme Manager Transparency & Accountability | Stockholm University, SPIDER | Digitalisation and inclusion, ethics, diversity and technology |
| Theo Röhle | Associate Professor | University of Gothenburg | Media and Communication Studies |
| Jan von Bonsdorff | Professor | Uppsala University | Art history |
| Gustav Juntti | Freelance journalist | Freelance journalist | AI policy |
| Mårten Hoffman | Chief Development Officer | Grant Thornton | Information Technology Governance, Digital Workspace development, Use of technology for improved service delivery, efficiency and work environment |
Civil society organization representatives
| Name | Title | Organization | Field of expertise |
| Terese Raymond | National coordinator of a network | Sambruk/Digidel.se | Digital inclusion, participatory research |
| Måns Jonasson | Internet expert | Internetstiftelsen | Internet use, human online experience |
| Maria Jacobson | Communication officer | Antidiskrimineringsbyrån Väst (Anti-Discrimimination Agency West Sweden) | Language, human rights, discrimination, bias, norm critique |
| Jannike Tillå | VP Communications and Public Benefit | Internetstiftelsen | Communications, digital source criticism |
| Coppélie Cocq | Professor | Humlab, Umeå University | Digital media ethics, minority studies, ethnology |
| Elias Ibrahim | DEI consultant | Make Equal | Discrimination law |
| Cia Bohlin | Head of Digital Competence & Insights | Internetstiftelsen | Digital Competence |
| Beatrice Nordling | Expert in economics | Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer | Economics |
| Richard Brattlund | Web Project Manager | Internetstiftelsen | Web development, IT infrastructure, project management |
Descriptions of organizations and biographies of the members of the Interdisciplinary Expert Pool can be found here.
Do you want to join the Interdisciplinary Expert Pool as a researcher or civil society organization?
Sign up here
Facts
Project period: November 2022 - October 2023
Project partners: See list of members of the Expert Pool above.
The project is funded by Vinnova and coordinated by AI Sweden.
Resources
Training Material for the Interdisciplinary Expert Pool for NLU
This training material provides introductory resources for anyone who would like to gain knowledge of Large Language Models, with special attention to the ethical aspects of this technology. The material is aimed at both a technical and a non-technical audience. It consists of both essential and more advanced resources in the form of readings, podcasts, open courses, videos and book.
The material is available on our online community MyAI. Create a free account to gain access to the material.
Alternatively, the material is available as a presentation in the link below 'To the presentation'.
This list has been compiled for the Interdisciplinary Expert Pool for NLU project.
Contact
Are you interested in getting involved in cross-disciplinary collaboration in the context of AI-driven language technology? Please contact Francisca Hoyer to learn more.
Francisca Hoyer
