Event Details

Virtual Presentation: Friday, September 13, 2024

Speaker: Shuyan Zhou, Duke University, Fall 2025

Virtual Zoom Link: https://usc.zoom.us/j/93035289629?pwd=FHXpqO3SHcKEppeDseLS1Y2d3blmry.1
Meeting ID: 930 3528 9629
Meeting Password: 911619

Abstract: For years, my dream has been to create autonomous AI agents capable of carrying out tedious procedural tasks (e.g., arranging conference travel), allowing me to focus on more creative and exciting tasks. Modern AI models, especially large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, have suddenly brought us much closer to achieving such AI agents. But, has my dream already come true? In this talk, I will answer this question by delving into our systematic evaluation of AI agents in realistic tasks. The evaluation uncovers many critical limitations of AI agents, such as tool use, abstract reasoning, and knowledge cutoff. It suggests that LLMs are crucial yet early steps towards AI autonomy. To address these challenges, I will introduce our research of a more suitable “language” for AIs, which overcomes the inherent limitations of using natural language for task solving. Finally, I will discuss how to leverage the vast human-authored knowledge available on the Internet more effectively to better equip agents to perform complex tasks autonomously.

Hosted by: Abel Salinas
POC: Karen Lake

Speaker Bio

Shuyan Zhou is an incoming Assistant Professor at the Computer Science Department at Duke University in Fall 2025. She is currently a researcher at Meta GenAI. She received her Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, where she was advised by Graham Neubig. Her research in AI focuses on creating AI agents for real-world tasks, such as using computers and generating code. Her work has been recognized at top natural language processing and machine learning conferences and journals such as ICLR, ICML, ACL, EMNLP, and TACL. You can find more about her at https://shuyanzhou.com

This AI Seminar presentation recorded and posted on our USC/ISI YouTube page within 1-2 business days: https://www.youtube.com/user/USCISI.

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Host: Abel Salinas | POC: Karen Lake