68th Vienna Deep Learning Meetup: CommentSense

Hi dear Deep Learners,

Did you have a great summer? We are doing a "Late Summer Networking Edition" Meetup on 22 September 2025: This time we'll have only one short talk - about YouTube Comment Understanding - which gives us extra time for a long networking session (if weather allows, on the splendid terrace of SBA Research).

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Agenda:
18:30

• Introduction & Welcome by the meetup organizers & hosts

18:45

• Talk: CommentSense: An On-Device AI Browser Extension for Real-Time YouTube Comment Understanding
  by Marc Kroll

19:10

• Hot Topics (tbc)
• Announcements

19:30

• Networking & Discussion: Extra Long Edition
  SBA Research provides drinks & snacks, if weather allows we can have an extra long networking on the nice terrace, otherwise in the social room of SBA.

~ 22:00 Wrap up & End
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Talk Details:
Online platforms face persistent challenges in moderating user-generated content, as automated systems often miss harmful material while exposing human moderators to significant psychological strain. Sentiment analysis provides a way to enhance user agency by allowing individuals to engage selectively with positive, neutral, or negative content.
This work compares traditional BERT-based models with small language models (SLMs) that incorporate contextual reasoning. Through user studies and model evaluations, we found that rigid, predefined filtering approaches were poorly received, whereas adaptable systems with on-demand labeling were preferred. Three sentiment-classification tools were developed and tested, demonstrating that SLM-based approaches consistently outperformed BERT baselines. Their ability to explain classification decisions improved perceived transparency and trust, while context-aware models achieved higher macro-F1 scores and stronger alignment with human judgment.
These findings suggest that locally deployed SLMs can support healthier digital interactions by reducing exposure to harmful content while preserving user control.

About the Speaker:
Marc Kroll is working as AI Product Manager for an Enterprise Content Management Vendor. His main focus is on Search and IDP.
Outside of work Marc is vibe-coding and catching up on AI News.

We are very much looking forward to seeing you (again) after the summer break, and are confident we'll be enjoying a splendid networking session at our host SBA Research.

See you soon,
Your VDLM organizers