Reposted by Ken HolsteinChristopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 15/03/2026I find this chart by Anthropic about theoretical vs. actual AI usage, from @pbump.com's latest newsletter, very funny, and I think it's worth explaining why, and also please push back on any of this if you disagree, as I may write about it in the future. 🧵 29414110
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 09/03/2026The CoALA Lab is moving to Switzerland! 🇨🇭 After several amazing years at CMU’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, this August I will join the faculty of EPFL’s School of Computer and Communication Sciences (@icepfl.bsky.social) in Lausanne, Switzerland. 6301
Reposted by Ken HolsteinTzu-Sheng Kuo 郭子生 @tskuo.bsky.social · 17/02/2026🔮 How can we empower online communities to design AI agents tailored to their unique needs and norms? In our #CHI2026 paper, we introduce #Botender, a system that enables collaborative design of AI agents through 🔥case-based provocation🔥 1165
Reposted by Ken HolsteinShaily @shaily99.bsky.social · 02/02/2026🎭 How do LLMs (mis)represent culture? 🧮 How often? 🧠 Misrepresentations = missing knowledge? spoiler: NO! At #CHI2026 we are bringing ✨TALES✨ a participatory evaluation of cultural (mis)reps & knowledge in multilingual LLM-stories for India 📜 arxiv.org/abs/2511.21322 1/10 14722
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 02/02/2026I am recruiting a postdoc in HCI & AI! Interested in augmenting human thinking and learning, futures of work & education, participatory AI, collective intelligence, or related topics? Please get in touch! This 2-year position will be based at a top university in Europe (email or DM for more info) 1149
Reposted by Ken HolsteinHanna Wallach @hannawallach.bsky.social · 29/01/2026Microsoft Research NYC is hiring a researcher in the space of AI and society! 26240
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 12/01/2026Submit to the 6th Human-Centered Explainable AI (HCXAI) workshop at CHI 2026 in Barcelona! 🗓️ Deadline: Feb 19, 2026 📝 2-5 page single column papers (excluding refs) 🌐 hcxai.jimdosite.com 030
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 01/01/2026The Tools for Thought workshop at #CHI2026 is now accepting submissions! (due Feb 12, 2026 AoE) We invite work that explores how to effectively design, evaluate, or apply *AI-based tools that augment and protect human cognition*. For more, see: ai-tools-for-thought.github.io/workshop/ 1164
Reposted by Ken HolsteinManoel Horta Ribeiro @manoelhortaribeiro.bsky.social · 26/12/2025In a new blog post, I contrast two flavors of empiricism: the one practiced in the social sciences and the one practiced in ML/CS. I argue that we need both, given that CS is increasingly about "claims," and not just constructing artifacts. doomscrollingbabel.manoel.xyz/p/the-empiri... 68616
Reposted by Ken HolsteinJenn Wortman Vaughan @jennwv.bsky.social · 16/12/2025In case you missed it in the flurry of NeurIPS activity, @hannawallach.bsky.social and I recorded a (video) podcast on women in ML, friendship, research, and careers. 0111
Reposted by Ken HolsteinJenn Wortman Vaughan @jennwv.bsky.social · 20/11/2025Spread the word! 📢 The FATE (Fairness, Accountability, Transparency, and Ethics) group at @msftresearch.bsky.social in NYC is hiring interns and postdocs to start in summer 2026! 🎉 Apply by *December 15* for full consideration. 15128
Reposted by Ken HolsteinJ. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 17/11/2025Can public involvement in AI evaluation improve the science? Or does it compromise quality, speed, cost? In @pnas.org, Megan Price & I summarize challenges of AI evaluation, review strengths/weaknesses, & suggest how participatory methods can improve the science of AI www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...pnas.orgHow public involvement can improve the science of AI | PNASAs AI systems from decision-making algorithms to generative AI are deployed more widely, computer scientists and social scientists alike are being ... 11912
Reposted by Ken HolsteinWesley Hanwen Deng @wesleydeng.bsky.social · 19/10/2025I am beyond trilled to present two 🏆 award-winning papers 🏆 @acm-cscw.bsky.social this year CSCW in beautiful Bergen, Norway!! Broadly, I'm excited to chat about responsible AI, AI auditing and red-teaming, and human-AI interaction. Say hi if we run into each other! 2212
Reposted by Ken HolsteinB. Prendergast @renderg.host · 16/10/2025Inspired by a post by @bayesianboy.bsky.social , I wrote something on the differences between information and insight — and why understanding remains a very human actrenderghost.leaflet.pubThe point is to understandMachines can’t make sense of the world for us. 3175
Reposted by Ken HolsteinLuke Guerdan @lukeguerdan.bsky.social · 14/10/2025A subtle aspect of predictive modeling is target variable construction: the process of translating a latent, unobservable concept like "healthcare need" into a prediction target But how does target variable construction unfold in practice, and how can we better support it going forward? #CSCW2025 🧵 161
Reposted by Ken HolsteinMichelle Lam @mlam.bsky.social · 29/09/2025LLM safety work often reasons over high-level policies (be helpful & polite), but must tackle on-the-ground cases (unsolicited money advice when stocks are mentioned). This can feel like driving on an unfamiliar road guided by a generic driver’s manual instead of a map. We introduce: Policy Maps 🗺️ 185
Reposted by Ken HolsteinAlexandra Olteanu @aolteanu.bsky.social · 23/06/2025There is a lot of talk and effort to figure out how genAI is different (I am also guilty of this!) -- the reality is that genAI is not that different and genAI is not that new either; it was hard to evaluate in the past, and it is still as hard to evaluate now #facct2025 0164
Reposted by Ken HolsteinHanna Wallach @hannawallach.bsky.social · 15/06/2025Check out the camera-ready version of our ICML position paper ("Position: Evaluating Generative AI Systems Is a Social Science Measurement Challenge") to learn more!!! arxiv.org/abs/2502.00561 (6/6)arxiv.orgPosition: Evaluating Generative AI Systems Is a Social Science Measurement ChallengeThe measurement tasks involved in evaluating generative AI (GenAI) systems lack sufficient scientific rigor, leading to what has been described as "a tangle of sloppy tests [and] apples-to-oranges com... 34411
Reposted by Ken HolsteinKate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 15/05/2025Somewhat oddly, the Trump regime's initial moves to cut science funding went very broad. This is catalyzing solidarity & advocacy around the value of science (see comms featuring cancer cures & tech innovation). But their next move may be to try to drive a wedge b/w "good science" & "bad science". 1128580
Reposted by Ken HolsteinAmy J. Ko @amyko.phd · 12/05/2025How's fascism going for you? medium.com/bits-and-beh...medium.comHow is fascism going for you? Here’s how it’s going for me.A catalog of impacts thus far from this administration’s horrors. 14320
Reposted by Ken HolsteinAlt CDC (they/them) @altcdc.altgov.info · 24/03/2025Securing your phone before entering the USA. 🧵 At CDC we travel around the globe to confront health threats and have never worried about returning home. Yet more researchers, including US Citizens, are having their phones searched at Customs. security.ucop.edu/resources/tr...security.ucop.edu Returning to the U.S. 35835347
Reposted by Ken HolsteinChris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 26/03/2025Unidentified men grabbing someone off the street and putting her in a car because she wrote an op-Ed. This as flatly authoritarian as anything we’ve seen in this country in a very long time. 18263626416137
Reposted by Ken HolsteinHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 14/03/20251. @alisongopnik.bsky.social, Cosma Shalizi, James Evans and myself have a new piece in Science on "AI" Large Models, pushing back against much of the collective wisdom about what they can and can't do. Official below, unpaywalled at henryfarrell.net/large-ai-mod... . So why this now?science.orgLarge AI models are cultural and social technologiesImplications draw on the history of transformative information systems from the past 21447188
Reposted by Ken HolsteinTzu-Sheng Kuo 郭子生 @tskuo.bsky.social · 10/03/2025How can we help communities collaboratively shape policies that impact them? In our #CHI2025 paper, we present PolicyCraft, a system that supports ✨collaborative policy design✨ through case-grounded deliberation. (🧵/11) 1185
Reposted by Ken HolsteinAlicia DeVrio @uhleeeeeeeshuh.bsky.social · 06/03/2025How can we better think and talk about human-like qualities attributed to language technologies like LLMs? In our #CHI2025 paper, we taxonomize how text outputs from cases of user interactions with language technologies can contribute to anthropomorphism. arxiv.org/abs/2502.09870 1/n 24311
Reposted by Ken HolsteinShannon Mattern @shannonmattern.bsky.social · 04/03/2025"18F works just how Musk + team pretend that they want gov't to work. But when his team found it, they destroyed it. 18F’s work is evidence that gov't works well, which undermines their msg that it doesn’t. 18F’s parent agency, the [GSA], turns a profit as an agency. So it has to be destroyed too."donmoynihan.substack.comRequiem for 18FA small government unit did what DOGE is pretending to do 212247
Reposted by Ken HolsteinRaelin @raelinm.bsky.social · 03/03/2025#Pittsburgh friends, Join me on Friday #standupforscience2025. Our city will be devastated if our universities lose critical funding. Our universities are top 10 employers, the entire city’s economy is dependent on science funding. www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...eventbrite.comStand Up for Science 2025 - Pittsburgh, PAStand up for science with us on March 7th, 2025, because science is for everyone! More info at www.standupforscience2025.org 071
Reposted by Ken HolsteinAnna Kawakami @anna-kawakami.bsky.social · 26/02/2025🏛️ How can we ensure that AI enhances, rather than harms, public services? In our policy memo, published with the Federation of American Scientists (@scientistsorg.bsky.social), we provide recommendations for how the fed gov't could help state & local agencies make better AI procurement decisions.🧵fas.orgExpanding Local Government Capacity for AI Procurement and UseAs new waves of AI technologies continue to enter the public sector, touching a breadth of services critical to the welfare of the American people, this center of excellence will help maintain high st... 1125
Reposted by Ken HolsteinPatrick Bahners @pbahners.bsky.social · 23/02/2025Joseph Ura: “A president refusing to abide by the law or the Constitution and ignoring court orders to stop his illegitimate actions would be a constitutional crisis like a bank robbery is a cash flow crisis.” www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...theatlantic.com‘Constitutional Crisis’ Is an UnderstatementIt’s the hottest, and most useless, buzz phrase of the moment. 316645
Reposted by Ken Holsteincookiesforbfast @cookiesforbfast.bsky.social · 18/02/2025Friendly reminder to get your free Covid tests before they throw them away. Covidtests.gov wapo.st/42VLGQhwapo.stU.S. weighs destroying $500 million in stockpiled covid testsThe government is reviewing proposals to shut down the program that ships free covid tests to American households and has been considering destroying 160 million tests. 5416911418
Reposted by Ken HolsteinL.D. Burnett @ldburnett.bsky.social · 09/02/2025for pity’s sake, I am BEGGING university leaders to stop framing this issue in terms of what this will cost the university. people dont care! EXPLAIN WHAT THIS WILL COST THE PUBLIC: closed hospitals and clinics, skipped treatments, loss of access to experimental drugs, unemployment, recession 137104712767
Reposted by Ken HolsteinRené Walter @rawx.bsky.social · 09/02/2025"AI ... becomes a tool for replacing politics. The Trump administration frames generative #AI as a remedy to 'government waste.' However, what it seeks to automate is not paperwork but democratic decision-making." 0122
Reposted by Ken HolsteinKate Starbird @katestarbird.bsky.social · 08/02/2025Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc. 9738121154
Reposted by Ken HolsteinHenry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 01/02/2025What I should have done in the beginning - here's a starter pack of 20-odd experts who journalists or others might want to read/talk to to understand the gutting of the administrative state (as opposed to broad decline of democracy etc). I've focused on academics go.bsky.app/MaC7vnv 1532438844
Reposted by Ken HolsteinDr. David Miller 🏳️🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 28/01/2025First off, it's critical to note: NSF is CONGRESSIONALLY MANDATED to evaluate proposals via broader impacts, as defined by this law below. Hence, if the admin wants NSF to deviate, that's called **breaking the law** (important to remind Congress of that) www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/... 2/5 115467
Reposted by Ken HolsteinPavel @spavel.bsky.social · 24/05/2023I'm an adventurous eater, but even I draw the line here 32716156
Reposted by Ken HolsteinDominik Moritz @domoritz.de · 25/01/2025The moderation approach with custom labelers etc in Bluesky is pretty clever and worth understanding when you use this platform: bsky.social/about/blog/0....bsky.socialBluesky’s Stackable Approach to Moderation - BlueskyToday, we’re open sourcing Ozone, a tool that lets a team of moderators or curators collaboratively review reports, create labels, and inspect content on the atproto network. Later this week, we’re op... 2164
Reposted by Ken HolsteinArvind Narayanan @randomwalker.bsky.social · 15/01/2025Bitter Lesson¹ maximalists seem to ignore the distinction between AI capability improvement and AI-based product development. When it comes to the latter, the Bitter Lesson has never been true, and it would be silly to suggest that it is. ¹ www.incompleteideas.net/IncIdeas/Bit...incompleteideas.netThe Bitter Lesson 2244
Reposted by Ken HolsteinBerna Devezer @devezer.bsky.social · 07/01/2025Alright it's here! Where we push back against the exploratory-confirmatory distinction that's become canonized in metascience and talk about what we think exploratory research (including exploratory experimentation and modeling) means and why our view is incompatible with 'unplanned data analyses'.philsci-archive.pitt.edu 1316955
Reposted by Ken HolsteinKevin Feng @kjfeng.me · 23/12/2024📢📢 Introducing the 1st workshop on Sociotechnical AI Governance at CHI’25 (STAIG@CHI'25)! Join us to build a community to tackle AI governance through a sociotechnical lens and drive actionable strategies. 🌐 Website: chi-staig.github.io 🗓️ Submit your work by: Feb 17, 2025 24417
Reposted by Ken HolsteinYu Lu Liu @liuyulu.bsky.social · 16/12/2024Human-centered Evalulation and Auditing of Language models (HEAL) workshop is back for #CHI2025, with this year's special theme: “Mind the Context”! Come join us on this bridge between #HCI and #NLProc! Workshop submission deadline: Feb 17 AoE More info at heal-workshop.github.io. 24410
Reposted by Ken HolsteinSireesh Gururaja @siree.sh · 17/12/2024When I started on ARL project that funds my PhD, the thing we were supposed to build was a "MaterialsGPT". What is a MaterialsGPT? Where does that idea come from? I got to spend a lot of time thinking about that second question with @davidthewid.bsky.social and Lucy Suchman (!) working on this: 1207
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 15/12/2024I am recruiting a postdoc via the CBI Fellowship Program (carnegiebosch.cmu.edu/fellowships/...). Interested in designing & evaluating interactive systems for participatory AI, augmented and collective intelligence, responsible AI, or related areas? Please apply and reach out to me via email! 2187
Reposted by Ken HolsteinLauren Herckis @laurenherckis.bsky.social · 07/12/2024The HCII at CMU seeks undergrads to do mentored summer research in design, behavioral sciences and computing technology. Stipend & support for housing/travel/food hcii.cmu.edu/summer-resea... Sample topics: Active Learning in STEM AI-Assisted Conflict Resolution Human-Centered Data Science and Vizhcii.cmu.eduHCII Summer Undergraduate Research Program | Human-Computer Interaction Institute 1138
Reposted by Ken HolsteinSauvik Das @sauvik.me · 13/12/2024Just wrapped up teaching the first ever installment of my "Building Technologies for the Resistance" class — and what a privilege! Students worked to identify unjust power disparities, and explored how different anarchist design principles could be used to help. Syllabus: bit.ly/btr-syllabus 2102
Reposted by Ken HolsteinMiriam Posner @miriamposner.com · 13/12/2024Always looking for good, clear, compelling essays to help introduce students to the notion that data can’t be “objective” or all-encompassing. 1439
Reposted by Ken HolsteinArvind Narayanan @randomwalker.bsky.social · 11/12/2024AI hype is making AI researchers forget painfully learned lessons core to the field. There's an emerging cope that progress in capabilities isn't slowing down—it's just invisible as benchmarks are saturated; vibe checks are useless because models are now superhuman so we can't perceive improvement. 49326
Ken Holstein @kenholstein.bsky.social · 10/12/2024Come work with @jessicahullman.bsky.social and I as a postdoc! We'll apply approaches from HCI, AI/ML, statistics, and decision theory to design new tools & methods for evaluating human-AI decision-making (e.g., tools to elicit, represent, & validate specifications of real-world decision problems). 1183