The evidence on the effects of generative AI (GenAI) on critical thinking is mixed, with studies suggesting both potential harms and benefits depending on its implementation. Some argue that AI-driven...

AI creates and exacerbates privacy risks, yet practitioners lack effective resources to identify and mitigate these risks. We present Privy, a tool that guides practitioners without privacy expertise through structured privacy impact assessments to: (i) identify relevant risks in novel AI product concepts, and (ii) propose appropriate mitigations. Privy was shaped by a formative study with 11 practitioners, which informed two versions -- one LLM-powered, the other template-based. We evaluated these two versions of Privy through a between-subjects, controlled study with 24 separate practitioners, whose assessments were reviewed by 13 independent privacy experts. Results show that Privy helps practitioners produce privacy assessments that experts deemed high quality: practitioners identified relevant risks and proposed appropriate mitigation strategies. These effects were augmented in the LLM-powered version. Practitioners themselves rated Privy as being useful and usable, and their feedback illustrates how it helps overcome long-standing awareness, motivation, and ability barriers in privacy work.

Each year, CyLab recognizes high-achieving Ph.D. students pursuing security and/or privacy-related research, with a CyLab Presidential Fellowship, covering an entire year of tuition.

A CMU research team has developed Purpose Mode — a browser extension that allows users to “toggle off” Attention Capture Damaging Patterns (ACDPs) while using social media platforms.

YouTube video by Hank Lee