For many of us, it is hard to remember a time when finding information wasn’t ubiquitous with an internet search. With the rising popularity and influence of AI, what is next for the future of information retrieval? CCC addressed this question and others during the Future of Information Retrieval Research in the Age of Generative AI Workshop this summer in Washington, DC.
Future of Information Retrieval Research in the Age of Generative AI CCC Workshop Participants
Today, the CCC is thrilled to announce the release of the Future of Information Retrieval Research in the Age of Generative AI Workshop Report. The report was authored by the Workshop Organizers: James Allan (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Eunsol Choi (University of Texas at Austin / New York University), Daniel P. Lopresti (Lehigh University / CCC) and Hamed Zamani (University of Massachusetts Amherst). The authors also received generous writing support from the workshop participants (the contributors list is on pages 38-39 of the report).
The report includes robust descriptions of many different directions for IR-GenAI research. Each of the below topics has sections on (1) a brief summary of the key observations, challenges, and opportunities, (2) short term research topics and recommendations, and (3) long term research topics and recommendations:
- Evaluation challenges and needs in IR-GenAI
- Learning from implicit and explicit human feedback for solving complex problems that may require reasoning
- Understanding and modeling users for the evolving generative AI-powered information access systems
- Challenges and potential solutions to address or mitigate socio-technical issues raised by the new technologies in IR-GenAI
- Methods for developing personalized IR-GenAI systems
- Efficiency considerations when scaling compute, data, and human efforts in developing IR-GenAI methods
- The role of information retrieval in enhancing AI agents
- Developing foundation models specifically for information access and discovery
There is also a section on Recommendations for Funding Agencies and Researchers on topics like evaluation campaigns, computing infrastructure and resources, and funding programs supporting collaborative research.
You can read the full workshop report on the CCC website, and also engage with the LinkedIn post announcing the report on the CCC LinkedIn page.
