Harmonising Generative AI and Semantic Web Technologies at ISWC 2024

Date: November 13, 2024

Context

This special session aims to catalyse progress in Generative AI and Semantic Web Technologies by fostering in-depth discussions and collaborative problem-solving among researchers, practitioners, and industry leaders. The session will feature three dedicated slots, each focusing on a specific challenge or theme within the broader topic area. Through a combination of short paper presentations, focused discussions, and working groups, participants will share insights, identify open problems, and initiate collaborative projects. We encourage participation from researchers at all career stages.

The session is organised in three slots, each addressing a specific research agenda:

• Slot 1: Benchmarking & Reproducibility in Gen AI for Knowledge Engineering
• Slot 2: Bridging the Gap: Building Knowledge-Enhanced Gen AI
• Slot 3: Spotlight on Applications and Success Stories in Gen AI + Semantic Web

Each of the three slots will follow a similar structure designed to maximise engagement and facilitate tangible outcomes. This will include a combination of the following activities (please note that timings are purely indicative).

• Slot kickstarter: short paper overview (15 minutes): A selection of short papers, submitted in advance, will be briefly pitched by the panellist to provide a concise overview of relevant research, tools, or datasets, that will kickstart the discussion.
• Focused discussion (60 minutes): Moderated discussions will delve deeper into the presented topics, allowing participants to share perspectives, raise questions, and identify key challenges. Depending on the slot, these may include hands-on activities, brainstorming sessions, or collaborative exercises.
• Follow-up (15 minutes): The idea of follow-up is for members to form and coordinate groups (with a leader) that meet up later in the conference (at coffee, lunch, dinner, etc.) and follow up on concrete actions. This is expected to generate concrete outputs, such as white papers, research agendas, or project proposals.

Event Goals

We anticipate the following outcomes from the special session:

• White Papers: Each slot will lay the groundwork for a collaboratively authored white paper summarising key findings, open problems, and potential research directions. We anticipate publishing the white papers as part of a special issue in a journal (to be defined).
• Research Agendas: The discussions and workshops are expected to generate research agendas outlining priority areas for future investigation.
• Collaborative projects and open repositories: We hope the session will spark new collaborations and initiatives to address the identified challenges.

Schedule