KDD 2025 - Keynote Speakers: Chris Manning / Meaning and Intelligence in Language Models

Abstract

Christopher Manning is the inaugural Thomas M. Siebel Professor in Machine Learning in the Departments of Computer Science and Linguistics at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI); and was Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (SAIL) 2018–2025. His research is on computers that can intelligently process, understand, and generate human languages. Chris is the most-cited researcher within Natural Language Processing (NLP), with best paper awards at the ACL, Coling, EMNLP, and CHI conferences and two ACL Test of Time awards; a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering; and recipient of the 2024 IEEE John von Neumann Medal for his pioneering work on applying neural network or deep learning approaches to human language understanding, which led into modern Large Language Models and Generative AI. He founded the Stanford NLP group, has written widely used NLP textbooks, and teaches the popular NLP class CS224N, watched by tens of thousands online. He is a current General Partner at AIX Ventures, leading early investments into companies including: Wispr Flow, Greenshoe, and Workhelix.