There will also be a 4-hour tutorial, given by Luis von Ahn and Edith Law, at AAAI on August 7 (2:00 PM - 6:00 PM) which will give newcomers and current researchers a bird’s eye view of the research landscape of human computation. The tutorial will be based on materials from a new book called “Human Computation” (published by Morgan & Claypool Synthesis Lectures on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), which will be distributed to all tutorial attendees.  Click here to register for the tutorial.

Download the slides for Part 1 and Part 2 of the tutorial. In addition, if your institution has subscription to the series, you can download the book here. Here is a rough description of what will be covered in the tutorial.

Introduction

    Computation: Now and Then

    What is Human Computation

    Tackling AI Problems: From Vision to Biology

    Tutorial Overview

Human Computation Algorithms

    A Definition of Algorithms

    Building Blocks of Algorithms (operations, controls, program synthesis)

    Programming Frameworks

    Evaluating Human Computation Algorithms (correctness, efficiency)

Aggregating Outputs

    Objective versus Cultural Truth

    Classification (latent class models, learning from imperfect data)

    Beyond Classification (ranking/voting, clustering, structured outputs, beliefs)

Task Routing

    Push versus Pull Approaches

    Push Approach (allocation, matching, inference)

    Pull Approach (search and visualization, task recommendation, peer routing)

Understanding Workers and Requestors

    Human Computation Markets (paid crowdsourcing, security and access, gamers,

      citizen science, learners, temporary Markets)

    Supporting Workers and Requestors as End Users

The Art of Asking Questions

    Designing Tasks (inclusion or exclusion of information, granularity, independence

      versus collaboration, incentives, quality control)

    Eliciting Truthful Responses (design of human computation games and their

      underlying mechanisms)

The Future of Human Computation

    Interweaving Human and Machine Intelligence

    Fostering Long-Term Relationships

    Designing Organizations and Task Markets