NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future

Ehud Reiter

NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future

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Abstract

Natural Language Generation (NLG) evaluation has changed dramatically since 1990, and will continue to evolve in the future. In 1990, when NLG had close ties to linguistics, there was very little formal experimental evaluation in the modern sense. In 2026, when NLG is closely linked to machine learning, experimental evaluation is expected and indeed fundamental to research. Many evaluation techniques were developed over this period, including most recently LLM-as-Judge. I expect NLG evaluation will continue to evolve in the future. In particular, impact, qualitative, and safety evaluation will become more important as large numbers of people routinely use NLG technology.

Anthology ID:: 2026.retroeval-main.2
Volume:: Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations
Month:: June
Year:: 2026
Address:: Aberdeen, United Kingdom
Editors:: Saad Mahamood, David M. Howcroft, Kees van Deemter, Simone Balloccu, Adarsa Sivaprasad, Barkavi Sundararajan, Alberto Bugarín Diz, Jose María Alonso-Moral
Venue:: RetroEval
SIG:: SIGGEN
Publisher:: Association for Computational Linguistics
Note:
Pages:: 8–15
Language:
URL:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.retroeval-main.2/
DOI:
Bibkey:
Cite (ACL):: Ehud Reiter. 2026. NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future. In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations, pages 8–15, Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Association for Computational Linguistics.
Cite (Informal):: NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future (Reiter, RetroEval 2026)
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PDF:: https://aclanthology.org/2026.retroeval-main.2.pdf

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@inproceedings{reiter-2026-nlg,
    title = "{NLG} Evaluation: Past, Present, Future",
    author = "Reiter, Ehud",
    editor = "Mahamood, Saad  and
      Howcroft, David M.  and
      van Deemter, Kees  and
      Balloccu, Simone  and
      Sivaprasad, Adarsa  and
      Sundararajan, Barkavi  and
      Bugar{\'i}n Diz, Alberto  and
      Alonso-Moral, Jose Mar{\'i}a",
    booktitle = "Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations",
    month = jun,
    year = "2026",
    address = "Aberdeen, United Kingdom",
    publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",
    url = "https://aclanthology.org/2026.retroeval-main.2/",
    pages = "8--15",
    ISBN = "979-8-89176-436-1",
    abstract = "Natural Language Generation (NLG) evaluation has changed dramatically since 1990, and will continue to evolve in the future. In 1990, when NLG had close ties to linguistics, there was very little formal experimental evaluation in the modern sense. In 2026, when NLG is closely linked to machine learning, experimental evaluation is expected and indeed fundamental to research. Many evaluation techniques were developed over this period, including most recently LLM-as-Judge. I expect NLG evaluation will continue to evolve in the future. In particular, impact, qualitative, and safety evaluation will become more important as large numbers of people routinely use NLG technology."
}

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%0 Conference Proceedings
%T NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future
%A Reiter, Ehud
%Y Mahamood, Saad
%Y Howcroft, David M.
%Y van Deemter, Kees
%Y Balloccu, Simone
%Y Sivaprasad, Adarsa
%Y Sundararajan, Barkavi
%Y Bugarín Diz, Alberto
%Y Alonso-Moral, Jose María
%S Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations
%D 2026
%8 June
%I Association for Computational Linguistics
%C Aberdeen, United Kingdom
%@ 979-8-89176-436-1
%F reiter-2026-nlg
%X Natural Language Generation (NLG) evaluation has changed dramatically since 1990, and will continue to evolve in the future. In 1990, when NLG had close ties to linguistics, there was very little formal experimental evaluation in the modern sense. In 2026, when NLG is closely linked to machine learning, experimental evaluation is expected and indeed fundamental to research. Many evaluation techniques were developed over this period, including most recently LLM-as-Judge. I expect NLG evaluation will continue to evolve in the future. In particular, impact, qualitative, and safety evaluation will become more important as large numbers of people routinely use NLG technology.
%U https://aclanthology.org/2026.retroeval-main.2/
%P 8-15

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Markdown (Informal)

[NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future](https://aclanthology.org/2026.retroeval-main.2/) (Reiter, RetroEval 2026)

NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future (Reiter, RetroEval 2026)

ACL

Ehud Reiter. 2026. NLG Evaluation: Past, Present, Future. In Proceedings of the 1st Symposium on Natural Language Generation Evaluations, pages 8–15, Aberdeen, United Kingdom. Association for Computational Linguistics.