New'pedias: Rapid, iterative, automagical construction of large reference works | #Wikimania2023
Channel: Wikimedia Foundation
Date: 2023-11-23

Modern tools make it possible to automatically construct dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works, with limited supervision. Large language models are rapidly improving the quality and consistency of that work.  We will discuss the implications for future reference works that anyone can edit, with examples and an interactive chat with the audience.

From the expanse of recorded knowledge, modern tools have made it possible to autogenerate simple dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works with limited supervision.  Early efforts to generate directories, companies, and topics led to projects relying on indexes of the entire web such as Common Crawl. In the last decade, a wide range of general & specialized knowledge bases have been generated automatically from large source corpora. (There is even a conference series dedicated to this: AKBC.ws !)

Today, AI models are improving the generality, depth, and consistency of such works.  
Translation models such as No Language Left Behind dominate the world of translation dictionaries.  Large language models are increasing the quality of unsupervised summaries, the granularity and quality of inline source citations, and the efficacy and scalability of supervision — so illustrated encyclopedias and travel guides may not be far behind.   

Join our interactive workshop to brainstorm references and formats that could benefit from automatic construction, discuss current examples, and compile a list of what knowledge we could free next!

Topics will include:
- How are generative models already changing collaborative knowledge production?
- How can use them to advance current Wikimedia projects?  including
- + filling gaps in coverage, classifying and countering systemic bias
- + automatic updating of pages, infoboxes, and templates; or flagging as stale
- + generating new sorts of drafts
- + generating freely licensed illustrations
- How can this expand the range of sustainable wikitopias?

Presenter:  SJ Klein