Abstract

In a world of racing to get the best systems on leaderboards, winning best shared tasks, building the largest LM, are we losing our soul as a scientific enterprise? Do we need to re-orient and re-pivot NLP ? If so, what is needed to make this happen? Can we chart together a program where we ensure that science is the pivotal ingredient in CL/NLP? Could Responsible NLP be an avenue that could lead us back towards that goal? In this talk, in the spirit of EMpirical NLP , I will explore some “practical” ideas around framing a Responsible NLP vision hoping to achieve a higher scientific standard for our field, addressing issues from the “how” we conduct our research and venturing into the “what” we work on and produce using tenets from responsible mindset perspective. I will pose more questions than answers. This is a call to action, an invitation to start a real global community conversation, hopefully engaging all stakeholders: academia, industry, government and civic society.