Responsibility in AI Systems & Experiences

At RAISE, we envision a future where AI systems are developed and used strongly aligned with human ethics and values. These systems will solve complex problems and help make decisions. They will provide experiences for the users that not only augment and enhance their live, but do so with accountability.

With a wealth of faculty from over a dozen labs across disciplines, RAISE is a leading center for research and education: building, evaluating, and envisioning AI technologies in the area of Responsible AI. Together, we are working to address humanity’s existential challenges such as climate change, access to food, water, and healthcare, as well as reliable and trustworthy information and political landscape, to support an equitable, sustainable, and healthy world.

Upcoming Talks & Events

Towards Bidirectional Human-AI Alignment via Interaction: Human-Centered AI Explanation, Evaluation, and Development
Weak-to-Strong Generalization
Apr. 18th 2025, 9:00 – 10:00AM PT
Guest Speaker

Pavel focused on reasoning, reinforcement learning, and AI alignment. He previously worked on advanced problem-solving models at OpenAI and contributed to Claude 3.7 and GPT-4-level systems. He completed his PhD at NYU in 2023 and will return as an Assistant Professor in Fall 2025, joining the Tandon CSE and Courant CS departments.

Abstract

As AI systems grow more capable, aligning them becomes increasingly challenging—especially when their behavior outpaces human understanding. This talk explores weak-to-strong generalization: can weak models effectively supervise stronger ones? Through experiments in NLP, chess, and reward modeling, the talk shows how even limited supervision can unlock surprising performance gains—and why alignment techniques like RLHF may not scale without new approaches.

Towards Bidirectional Human-AI Alignment via Interaction: Human-Centered AI Explanation, Evaluation, and Development
Responsible AI for Enterprise Data Centers: Balancing Technical Excellence and Ethical Standards
Apr. 25th 2025, 9:00 – 10:00AM PT
Guest Speaker

Shilpi leads product strategy at IBM Infrastructure, bringing AI into enterprise data center solutions. With 14+ years in engineering, data science, and product management, she holds two AI patents and is an IEEE Senior Member. Shilpi is passionate about ethical tech and building scalable, responsible systems.

Abstract

As AI transforms enterprise data center infrastructure, product managers face a critical challenge: driving innovation while upholding ethical standards. This session explores how Responsible AI is shaping the future of system offerings—ensuring data privacy, fairness, and transparency in environments where operational data is central. Through real-world examples, attendees will learn how to apply ethical AI frameworks to build scalable, innovative, and socially responsible solutions that meet both technical and societal needs.

Publications

ModelsCounterfactual Explanations and Algorithmic Recourses for Machine Learning: A Review

In ACM Computing Surveys, Volume 56, Issue 12 Article, No.: 312, Pages 1 – 42.

Sahil Verma, Varich Boonsanong, Minh Hoang, Keegan Hines, John Dickerson, Chirag Shah. 2024 

Addressing Weak Decision Boundaries in Image Classification by Leveraging Web Search and Generative Models

In Proceedings of the Thirty-Second International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, August 2023. International Joint Conferences on Artificial Intelligence Organization, Macau, SAR China, 5941–5949.

Tal August, Lucy Lu Wang, Jonathan Bragg, Marti A. Hearst, Andrew Head, and Kyle Lo. 2023 

Human and Technological Infrastructures of Fact-checking

In Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 6, CSCW2 (November 2022), 1–36.

Prerna Juneja and Tanushree Mitra

Partnerships

UW eScience Institute

UW Data Lab

Bright and spacious kitchen

 

Information Matters

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InfoSeeking

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Meet Our Executive Committee

Chirag Shah

Chirag Shah

Co-Founding Director

Chirag Shah is a Professor in the Information School. He is the Founding Director of InfoSeeking Lab, which focuses on issues related to information seeking, human-computer interaction (HCI), and social media.

Email: chirags@uw.edu

Bill Howe

Bill Howe

Co-Founding Director

Bill Howe is an Associate Professor in the iSchool, Adjunct Associate Professor in Computer Science & Engineering, Founding Associate Director of the eScience institute and remains a Senior Data Science Fellow.

Email: billhowe@uw.edu

 

Tanu Mitra

Tanu Mitra

Co-Founding Director

Tanu Mitra is an Assistant Professor at the Information School, where she leads the Social Computing research group. Her research focuses on studying and building large-scale social computing systems to understand and counter problematic information online.

Email: tmitra@uw.edu