Team

Team

Maik Larooij

PhD Student
larooij@opengov.nl
maiklarooij.nl

I'm a PhD candidate at the ICAI OpenGov Lab, focusing on advanced IR for open government.

Abstract

Recent developments in generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) are changing the way we search. Instead of having to still manually search a list of relevant documents based on a few keywords, new technologies offer the possibility of directly generating an answer in natural language. A relevant area of research that I want to focus on in my study is conversational search. The goal is to make the search experience feel like a real conversation. For this, a chatbot can, for example, try to ask clarifying questions to better understand the user's search intent. A subsequent step is to provide an answer, based on the available documents, that is grounded in those documents (RAG).

Governments produce large volumes of information, and it is crucial that this information is easily accessible to citizens, journalists, and researchers. However, the sheer volume and complexity of government information can make it difficult for users to find what they are looking for. My research focuses on developing techniques to improve the search experience for open government data. This includes exploring how conversational search can be applied to government information, and how LLMs can be used to generate more accurate and relevant answers based on government documents.

An important notion in my current research is the 'sensitivity' of information. Some government information is more sensitive than others, and this can affect how it should be handled in the search process. For example, certain documents may contain personal data or classified information that requires special handling. I am currently investigating how to incorporate sensitivity into the search process, and how to ensure that sensitive information is handled appropriately while still providing users with the information they need. For example in the context of Woo-requests (Woo - Wet open overheid is similar to FOIA - Freedom of Information Act and the Open Government Act), where it might be beneficial to specify and clarify a request before the actual search process starts, keeping in mind that the information that is used for the specification and clarification of the request might contain sensitive information.