The First High-Level Forum on Artificial Intelligence and Human Languages & the Seventh National Conference on Language Intelligence took place at Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) from Sept 7 to 8.

Wang Dinghua, secretary of the CPC BFSU committee, delivers an opening address. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

In his opening remarks, Wang Dinghua, secretary of the CPC BFSU committee, emphasized the profound transformations occurring in language education due to technological advancements and globalization.

Wang said that BFSU offers programs for 101 foreign languages, including all official languages of countries that have diplomatic relations with China, providing it with unique advantages in language teaching and studies. He highlighted the university’s commitment to accurately understanding and adapting to challenges brought by the digital intelligence era, striving to innovate in foreign language education and research.

Wang also spoke of the role played by the BFSU Artificial Intelligence and Human Languages Lab (BFSU•AI) as a beacon in the field of language education. Since its establishment, the lab’s research team has secured 12 national-level projects and 12 provincial and ministerial-level ones and has launched influential publications such as Journal of China Computer-Assisted Language Learning, Languages and Intelligence and the book series on AI and human languages, among other notable achievements.

He said that BFSU will continue to leverage its strengths in foreign languages and multidisciplinary fields to contribute to the digital transformation and intelligent advancement of China’s foreign language education.

One highlight of the event was the keynote session, where 10 professionals presented their recent research on large language models, brain neural decoding and AI-empowered education, offering insights into the applications of large models and AI technologies in education and cognitive studies.

Editors share their ideas during the chief editor’s forum. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

The conference featured a chief editor’s forum, drawing editors from various journals to share their perspectives on the impact of AI on language research and academic publishing.

Experts and scholars offer insights on language intelligence talent development during the roundtable forum. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn] 

The roundtable forum on language intelligence talent development discussed the need for future language professionals to master both traditional language skills and AI technologies to address complex issues. Cultivating talent with interdisciplinary backgrounds in AI and language intelligence will be crucial for advancing the field of language intelligence, participants said at the session.

Young scholars and researchers participate in the conference’s Youth Forum. [Photo/bfsu.edu.cn]

Another highlight of the conference, the Youth Forum, provided a platform for young scholars to present their work. Thirty-seven researchers from across the country engaged in discussions on topics such as cognition of human languages and neuroscience research, studies on human languages from an interdisciplinary perspective, deep learning and multilingual machine translation, as well as intelligent language teaching and language intelligence technology.

Under the theme “Interdisciplinary Research on Language Intelligence”, the event was hosted by BFSU and the Language Intelligence Professional Committee of the Chinese Association for Artificial Intelligence, with the support of BFSU•AI, Beiwai Online and the Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.