iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 02/10/2026

We look forward to your thoughts on our article and possible ideas on how the community can best benefit leveraging LLMs in NLG research, whilst at the same time ensuring that we keep an open space for those exploring alternative approaches.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 02/10/2026

There is a risk that considering that some sub-fields of NLG as solved will lead to reduced attention to domains that deal with low-resource languages or a tendency towards a one-size fits all mentality where alternative more efficient approaches may get ignored.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 02/10/2026

We argue that the switch to LLMs within NLG research has not led to complete dominance of the field. Nevertheless, some sub-fields have declined as researchers have moved on to other areas.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 02/10/2026

I am pleased to announce that our @nejlt.bsky.social letter looking at the secular trends of LLMs and Natural Language Generation research has been published today: nejlt.ep.liu.se/article/view...

nejlt.ep.liu.se

The Future of Natural Language Generation in the Age of Large Language Models | Northern European Journal of Language Technology

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Vilém Zouhar @zouhar.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

I'm on the faculty job market for Fall 2027 assistant professorship. I work on the science of AI/NLP evaluation, which is currently undergoing a crisis. Get in touch! My research statement is public: vilda.net

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Bart Penders @penders.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Back of the envelope calculations: 3600 years of research time went into the collective application process. The research will fund 3200 years of research. We are 400 research years poorer as a result of this. 1/2

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Marcel Bollmann @marcel.bollmann.me · 21/09/2026

Did you know it’s pretty easy to programmatically access ACL Anthology data? For example, here’s a snippet you could use to get the BibTeX entries for all of your papers. The downside is that the initial fetching of the data takes quite long atm, but it can still be useful for automation!

Python code:

from acl_anthology import Anthology
anthology = Anthology.from_repo()
author = anthology.get_person("marcel-bollmann")
for paper in sorted(author.papers(), key=lambda p: p.year):
print(paper.to_bibtex())

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 20/09/2026

Just tell the kid that Deutsche Bahn has cancelled the ICE train to Düsseldorf Hbf for that authentic DB experience: „Wir bitten um Ihr Verständnis.“

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Transactions on Machine Learning Research @tmlrorg.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

TMLR has faced a deluge of submissions, necessitating stricter desk rejection policies due to limited reviewer capacity Co-EiC Nihar Shah reached out to authors of 10 papers slated for desk reject. Could they answer questions about their *own* submission? medium.com/@TmlrOrg/ask...

medium.com

Asking Authors About Their Own Papers

By Nihar B. Shah

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Gautam Kamath @gautamkamath.com · 16/09/2026

Nihar Shah did a heroic experiment for TMLR: he spent 20-25 hours over two weeks interviewing authors of seemingly low-quality submissions about their own papers. He confirmed what we all suspected: people submitting these papers have *no idea* what is going on in them.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 10/09/2026

Wir haben das gleiche Ergebnis mit Brexit im Großbritannien auch gesehen. Wie viel Kontakt die WählerInnen mit Leuten, die Immigrationshintergrund haben, Einfluss hatte.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 08/09/2026

Thinking about this a bit more. I think it comes down to the principle of respect of time. Reviewers time is finite. Therefore, desk rejection is a way of ensuring a constructive reviewing process.

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

New blog: Desk rejection is an unfortunate necessity Editors can desk reject papers without sending them to reviewers, eg because of wrong format or weak content. I dont like doing this, but flood of “AI slop” papers makes this an unfortunate necessity. ehudreiter.com/2026/09/08/d...

ehudreiter.com

Desk rejection is an unfortunate necessity

Editors in venues can desk reject papers without sending them to reviewers, for reasons such as wrong format, LLM-written, topic out of scope, and weak content. I dont like doing this, but the floo…

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Ines Montani 〰️ @inesmontani.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

Exactly 10 years ago today, Matthew and I sat at the notary's office overlooking the city of Berlin, and signed the founding documents of our company, @explosion.ai. So much has happened since and we got to witness the field evolve, "AI" become mainstream, and hypes come and go. (1/8)

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Emiel van Miltenburg @evanmiltenburg.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Here's the list of accepted papers for #INLG2026: 2026.inlgmeeting.org/accepted-pap... Much to see at the conference, but as always this will be a single-track program. I love this set-up, as it creates common ground for attendees to discuss what they've seen. Registration is open now! #NLP #AI

2026.inlgmeeting.org

INLG2026

The 19th International Natural Language Generation Conference is scheduled to be held in Utrecht, the Netherlands from October 17 to 21, 2026.

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

Position change: Professor -> Emeritus Professor. I am now officially retired!

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Echobit @echobit.de · 23/08/2026

Jemand hat die Domain „localhost8000.com“ gekauft, nur um zu sagen: „Du kannst nicht mal einen Doppelpunkt richtig tippen.“ Das ist der Höhepunkt der Programmierer-Verachtung. 😂

Screenshot der Website „localhost8000.com“. Die Seite erklärt humorvoll einen typischen Tippfehler: Statt „localhost:8000“ wurde „localhost8000.com“ aufgerufen. In einem Terminal-Beispiel werden die gewünschte und die versehentlich eingegebene Adresse gegenübergestellt.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 13/08/2026

I think I may have some of these notes still left!

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 13/08/2026

I still remember in 2015 I had received a bunch of 2000 Yen notes when brought Japanese currency in Aberdeen, Scotland. When I was paying for a ticket in rural Shikoku I couldn’t understand why the old man was so excited to receive such a note. Only later did I find out it was a rare note!

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Nils Feldhus @nfel.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Deadline extended for YNLG 2026 (Young Researchers in Natural Language Generation workshop) at @inlg.bsky.social ! You can submit your 2-page position papers until August 13 AoE. It's a great opportunity to connect with fellow NLG researchers over two days in Utrecht! bsky.app/profile/nfel...

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Ivan Kartáč @ivankartac.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

My rule-based part-of-speech tagger hacked two companies last night!

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Stephan Schwering 🏳️‍🌈 @stpnlibrarian.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Save the date: Am Freitag, 23. April 2027 findet die zweite bundesweite "Nacht der Bibliotheken" statt. #bibnacht 😍 Und für alle #Bibliotheken gibt es am 24.09. von 10:00-11.00 Uhr ein Online-Seminar mit allen Infos des Deutschen Bibliotheksverbandes. www.nachtderbibliotheken.de/news/4294161...

Plakat: Save the date 23.04.2027 Nacht der Bibliothek

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

New blog: AI for Healthcare: Great benchmarks but minimal impact AI in healthcare benchmarks show soaring perf, but in the real world AI is not actually helping people much. Reasons include messy real world, weak eval, deployment, and lack of utility ehudreiter.com/2026/08/05/a...

ehudreiter.com

AI for Healthcare: Great benchmarks but minimal impact

The paradox of AI in healthcare is that while benchmarks show soaring (and sometimes superhuman) performance, in the real world AI is not actually helping people much. This is partially because rea…

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Stadt Düsseldorf @duesseldorf.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

‼️In Düsseldorf Kalkum wurde eine Granate gefunden. Rund 120 Menschen müssen ihre Wohnung verlassen. Bitte folgt den Evakuierungsaufforderungen im Gefahrenbereich zügig, um die Entschärfung nicht unnötig zu verzögern. 🙏 ➡️ ow.ly/zkSU50ZwA2X

Karte zeigt einen markierten Bereich mit rotem Kreis und Stern nahe Kalkumer Schloßallee in einer städtischen Umgebung.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 04/08/2026

YNLG Is a great opportunity for young researchers to get into NLG research and get meaningful advice from us senior researchers.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 04/08/2026

Librarians are the effectively the “canary in the coal mine” of the health of a country.

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Stephan Schwering 🏳️‍🌈 @stpnlibrarian.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

"The Librarians" zeigt den Kampf gegen Zensur in US-Bibliotheken und für Informationsfreiheit, Vielfalt und demokratische Werte. Sehenswert und bei filmfriend.de mit Bibliothekskarte zum Streamen! 👇 @filmfriend.bsky.social #bibliotheken www.filmfriend.de/de/movies/th...

filmfriend.de

filmfriend - The Librarians

Seit dem Jahr 2021 haben in den USA Versuche der Zensur von Buchbeständen in Bibliotheken massiv zugenommen. Vor allem Schul-, aber auch öffentlich...

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 04/08/2026

That’s not sustainable in the long run. I hope there are some sensible reforms to ensure quality over quantity.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 30/07/2026

“Poorly exercised judgment” is when you say an unkind word. Not inducing people to get tattoos…

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 30/07/2026

Not sure if it is premature, but the music is slowing…

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

Congrats to my student Mengxuan Sun for submitting her PhD thesis! Mengxuan is joint CS/Medicine and is looking at using NLP to help cancer patients.

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

TACL is looking for more co-editors, apply by 31 July if interested www.aclweb.org/portal/conte... Also TACL is always looking for people to join its standing reviewer pool. In general, TACL reviewers should have PhD, 10 first-author papers, and 1K citations

aclweb.org

Call for nominations for TACL Co-Editors-in-Chief, 2027–2029 | ACL Member Portal

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Vilém Zouhar @zouhar.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

Several reviewers with no technical background told me they reviewed for NeurIPS using agents, stating they didn't understand what the work is about. Asked how they could trust the review. They said when the paper hits the socials, the people will catch the errors.

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Nils Feldhus @nfel.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

📢 Call for Papers: YNLG 2026 The Young Researchers in Natural Language Generation workshop is a 2d in-person event part of INLG 2026 @inlg.bsky.social in Utrecht 🇳🇱, with poster sessions, keynote talks, roundtable discussions, and a one-day hackathon. Due: August 10, 2026 ynlg-workshop.github.io

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 09/07/2026

“I dont see why I should volunteer my (unpaid) time to review papers whose main purpose is to burnish someone else’s CV.” I’m also seeing people wanting to volunteer for reviewing in subjects they have no expertise in. I’d encourage folks to publish in smaller more focused scientific venues.

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Emiel van Miltenburg @evanmiltenburg.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Our book review of @ehudreiter.bsky.social 's book on Natural Language Generation is finally out: direct.mit.edu/coli/article... #NLProc

direct.mit.edu

Natural Language Generation by Ehud Reiter

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

I am becoming an editor (EiC) at TACL (Transactions of ACL) journal. Not what I expected to be doing in retirement, but I am a strong believer in journals as the best way to present research, and I want to help TACL become an even better venue for publishing NLP research.

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University of Aberdeen @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

We’re honoured that the pattern on the new Aberdeen Football Club away strip is inspired by the striking façade of the University’s Sir Duncan Rice Library, reinforcing the partnership between two of the great institutions of Aberdeen. University of Aberdeen Library.

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Emiel van Miltenburg @evanmiltenburg.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

Good to know * INLG also welcomes dual submissions. * The conference is held right before & relatively close to EMNLP, so you could attend both. * You can either submit directly (deadline: July 15) or commit a reviewed paper from ARR.

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Emiel van Miltenburg @evanmiltenburg.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

INLG (@inlg.bsky.social) submissions are now open! Please submit all of your work on Natural Language Generation. Submit systems, demos, experiments, position papers, squibs, linguistic analyses, as long as it is NLG-related. For more information, see: 2026.inlgmeeting.org #NLProc

2026.inlgmeeting.org

INLG2026

The 19th International Natural Language Generation Conference is scheduled to be held in Utrecht, the Netherlands from October 17 to 21, 2026.

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INLG 2026 @inlg.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

The 2nd Call for Papers for #INLG2026 is out! Two ways to submit: 📄 Direct submissions, archival and not, by 15 July: openreview.net/group?id=acl... 💍 ARR commitments by 5 August: openreview.net/group?id=acl... ——— 📍Utrecht, NL — Oct 17–21, 2026, right before EMNLP 2026.inlgmeeting.org/calls.html

openreview.net

INLG 2026 Conference Direct Submissions

Welcome to the OpenReview homepage for INLG 2026 Conference Direct Submissions

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Really enjoyed helping my colleague Jakub Zbrzezny from our Divinity dept look at how well LLMs can translate biblical materials in a local Arabic dialect. Not surprisingly, LLMs good at translating out of dialect, but struggle to translate into dialect. aclanthology.org/2026.retroev...

aclanthology.org

The Arabic Bible as an Evaluation Tool: The Case Study of the Khalīlī Arabic Dialect

Jakub Zbrzeżny, Ehud Reiter, Wei Zhao. Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations. 2026.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 17/06/2026

I would like give my heartfelt congratulations to Eduardo Calò for successfully defending his PhD thesis on “Automatically Expressing the Meaning of Logical Formulae in Natural Lanaguage” at @cs-nlp-uu.bsky.social earlier today.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 17/06/2026

I am pleased to announce that the proceedings for RetroEval have now been published on ACL Anthology: aclanthology.org/volumes/2026...

aclanthology.org

Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations - ACL Anthology

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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 16/06/2026

The media is not properly covering this but they'll breathlessly report the rising price of SpaceX, luring in idiots thinking it'll go up forever. That'll drive the hype and price increase further. It's one giant pump and dump fleecing everyone's retirement accounts and retail investors.

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Ivan Kartáč @ivankartac.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Do you sometimes have to explain to engineers that the main role of science is not to produce software? Once in a while I see people comment on some paper along the lines of “but it’s not efficient” or “I can’t use this in production” as if this was what research is about.

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DM Howcroft 🦔 @davehowcroft.com · 08/06/2026

Ehud gave a provocative closing talk about research culture at #RetroEval last week and I really agree with him. It's very hard to move slowly and do good science when the culture is to move fast and not worry too much so long as you're getting published, even if it's not useful or reproducible.

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Saad Mahamood @saad.me.uk · 09/06/2026

We had a fantastic time last week discussing the current challenges in NLG evaluation and celebrating the career of @ehudreiter.bsky.social. Pictures and a few video clips are now available: retroeval.github.io/_pages/media I would like to thank @uniofaberdeen.bsky.social for their support.

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Ehud Reiter @ehudreiter.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Took lots of noce pictures at my Retroeval retirement symposium. One of my favourites was me with my first and last PhD students, Sandra Williams and Yujun Wang!

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