LATTICE – A National Network Lab to Democratize Human Language Technology
The LATTICE Lab (ICAI Lab on conversational ArTifical in Telligence nEtwork) has stepped into the spotlight as the 56th lab within the ICAI talent and knowledge ecosystem. LATTICE brings together public-private and public-public projects pursuing excellence in conversational intelligence. While the lab serves as a long-term resource for the Dutch AI community, its mission begins with the LESSEN project, which is dedicated to low-resource, chat-based AI which is already active.
Coordinated by Prof. dr. Suzan Verberne (Leiden University), Dr. Faegheh Hasibi (Radboud University), and Dr. Jan N. van Rijn (Leiden University), the lab facilitates a co-creation process where targeted research outputs are mapped to the specific needs of its partners to ensure real-world impact.
The mission of the lab is built upon a multi-disciplinary foundation, integrating information retrieval, natural language processing, and machine learning with a focus on socially aware and explainable AI. The work conducted in the lab focuses on designing training-, inference-, and memory- efficient neural architectures. This allows for the development of conversational agents even under conditions of data scarcity, directly addressing the need for true and unbiased information in internal and external communications. In an era where organizations are increasingly moving toward lightweight, in-house models with specific context, LATTICE provides the expertise to ensure these systems are accurate, safe, and reliable.
The overall goal and mission are driven by a clear vision of direct societal needs, aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goals to achieve higher levels of economic productivity through technological upgrading and innovation. By focusing on democratization for non-English and lower-resource contexts, LATTICE aims to make advanced technology accessible to Dutch companies without a total reliance on big tech. The lab is already active in this space, facilitating co-creation processes where targeted research outputs are mapped to the specific needs of its partners. More information about the lab, research projects and partners can be found here.
