GPT-SW3: building the first large generative language model for the Nordic languages
This talk gives an overview over the process of building the first large generative language model for the Nordic languages. We cover the motivation for building the model, as well as challenges and opportunities with data and compute. We also give examples of applications of the model, and discuss future directions for building and deploying large language models for smaller languages.
Sahlgren is known for this work on Random indexing applied to distributional semantics published through research projects at the Swedish Institute of Computer Science and later at Gavagai AB, the research company he co-founded in 2008. Sahlgren's dissertation The Word-Space Model was awarded the prize for the most prominent scholarly achievement of 2006 at the Stockholm University Faculty of Humanities.
Biography
Magnus Sahlgren is Head of Research for Natural Language Understanding at AI Sweden. Sahlgren has a PhD in computational linguistics, and his research lies at the intersection between computational linguistics, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. He is primarily known for his work on computational models of meaning, and he is currently driving the initiative to train large language models for the Nordic languages. Sahlgren has previously held positions at the Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI), the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS), Stockholm university, and he is the co-founder of the language technology company Gavagai AB.
