SemEval-2026 Task 7: Everyday Knowledge Across Diverse Languages and Cultures
Nedjma Ousidhoum, Junho Myung, Carla Perez-Almendros, Jiho Jin, Amr Keleg + 25 more
TLDR
SemEval-2026 Task 7 evaluated LLMs and NLP systems on everyday knowledge across 30+ diverse, low-resource language-culture pairs using a strict evaluation benchmark.
Key contributions
- Evaluated LLMs/NLP systems on everyday knowledge across 30+ language-culture pairs.
- Used an extended BLEnD benchmark, focusing on low-resource languages and diverse cultures.
- Strictly for evaluation, prohibiting training or fine-tuning on the task data.
- Included two tracks: Short-Answer Questions (SAQ) and Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ).
Why it matters
This task provides crucial insights into how LLMs and NLP systems perform on everyday knowledge in diverse, low-resource cultural contexts. It highlights challenges in evaluation and model behavior for under-represented languages, guiding future research in equitable AI development.
Original Abstract
We present our shared task on evaluating the adaptability of LLMs and NLP systems across multiple languages and cultures. The task data consist of an extended version of our manually constructed BLEnD benchmark (Myung et al. 2024), covering more than 30 language-culture pairs, predominantly representing low-resource languages spoken across multiple continents. As the task is designed strictly for evaluation, participants were not permitted to use the data for training, fine-tuning, few-shot learning, or any other form of model modification. Our task includes two tracks: (a) Short-Answer Questions (SAQ) and (b) Multiple-Choice Questions (MCQ). Participants were required to predict labels and were allowed to submit any NLP system and adopt diverse modelling strategies, provided that the benchmark was used solely for evaluation. The task attracted more than 140 registered participants, and we received final submissions from 62 teams, along with 19 system description papers. We report the results and present an analysis of the best-performing systems and the most commonly adopted approaches. Furthermore, we discuss shared insights into open questions and challenges related to evaluation, misalignment, and methodological perspectives on model behaviour in low-resource languages and for under-represented cultures.
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