Call for Papers
We are excited to announce the 3rd Language Models for Underserved Communities (LM4UC) workshop, co-located with IJCAI 2026. The workshop will take place in person and virtually in Bremen. LM4UC invites researchers, practitioners, and policymakers to address challenges and propose innovative solutions for building and deploying language models (LMs) for underserved languages and communities.
Underserved communities often lack adequate access to advanced NLP technologies due to limited linguistic data, insufficient computational resources, or inadequate AI governance frameworks. This gap hinders equitable access to NLP advancements, exacerbating the digital divide. Our workshop aims to address this by fostering a multidisciplinary dialogue around the development of LMs that prioritize cultural sensitivity, resource efficiency, and sustainable AI practices.
Topics of Interest
We invite submissions of full papers, ongoing work, position papers, and survey papers on topics including, but not limited to:
- Benchmark Design & Task Construction: Benchmarks are no longer passive datasets. They are mechanisms that shape model development. This track focuses on principled, technically grounded benchmark design.
- Alignment & Safety (Multilingual / Global): Most alignment research assumes Western norms. This track focuses on technically grounded alignment methods that generalize across cultures and languages.
- Agentic Systems in Global Environments: As LLMs become agents, we need formal evaluation and control in multilingual, multi-cultural environments.
Submission Guidelines
- Format: We welcome long papers (8 pages) and short papers (4 pages), excluding references.
- Style: Submissions must follow the official IJCAI 2026 style guidelines.
- Where to Submit: Submit your paper via OpenReview: [TBD]
Important Dates
- Submission deadline: TBD
- Notification of acceptance: TBD
- Camera-ready paper due: TBD
- Workshop dates: August 15–17, 2026 (TBD)
Please note that all the deadlines are 11:59PM in AoE (Anywhere on Earth) timezone.
Submission Link
Papers should be submitted via OpenReview.
Contact Us
For inquiries, please contact the workshop organizers: lm4uc.organizers (at) gmail.com
Alternatively, you can reach us via our Discord server.
List of Speakers
List of Organizers
Schedule
| Time | Session |
|---|---|
| 09:00 – 09:30 | Keynote 1: Prof. Preslav Nakov |
| 09:30 – 10:00 | Keynote 2: Prof. Iryna Gurevych |
| 10:00 – 10:30 | Coffee / Networking Break |
| 10:30 – 11:30 | Panel Discussion: Ensuring Trustworthiness of Agentic System in Global Deployment |
| 11:30 – 12:00 | System Demonstrations |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch Break |
| 13:00 – 13:30 | Keynote 3: Dr. Andreas Haupt |
| 13:30 – 14:30 | Oral Presentations |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Coffee / Networking Break |
| 15:00 – 15:30 | Keynote 4: TBD |
| 15:30 – 16:30 | Poster Session & Networking |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | Awards & Closing Remarks: Fred Phillip |