Barbara Grosz is the Higgins Professor of Natural Sciences, Emerita, at Harvard University, recognized for foundational contributions to computational linguistics and natural language processing. Her research established much of the theory of how computers can understand and participate in extended human dialogue.
Grosz pioneered the study of discourse structure, showing that conversation is not a flat sequence of sentences but has a hierarchical organization of intentions and focus of attention. This work, along with centering theory, gave systems a principled way to track what a conversation is about and to resolve references like pronouns across multiple utterances. She also developed influential models of multi-agent collaboration, formalizing how independent agents, human or machine, can build and maintain shared plans, ideas that bear directly on today’s AI agents.
In recent years Grosz turned to the ethics of computing, co-creating Harvard’s Embedded EthiCS program, which weaves ethical reasoning directly into computer science courses, and she helped lead the 2016 “Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030” study. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.