Tag: Applied Research

Conversing with AI: Interview with Chelsea Wang about Communications with Artificial Intelligence Systems (Part 3 of 3)

In the final part of our conversation, Chelsea Wang explains how her background in psychology has influenced her work in artificial intelligence. In particular, she describes how her social science background helped her develop and deploy her own version of the Mutual Theory of Mind as a psychologist within the field of artificial intelligence. When socializing, humans employ a recursive feedback loop of conceptualization of each other, and she explores the application of similar concepts to conversational AI systems.

She concludes by discussing her journey as a PhD student: what led her to seek her dissertation and her plans afterwards to use what she is learning now to conduct innovative and impactful work in the business world.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

More about Chelsea:

Qiaosi Wang (Chelsea) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Chelsea is a human-centered AI researcher and her PhD dissertation work focuses on building the Mutual Theory of Mind framework, inspired by the basic human capability to surmise what is happening in others’ minds (also known as “Theory of Mind”), to enhance mutual understanding between humans and AIs during human-AI communication. Her work specifically focuses on the human-AI communication process during AI-mediated social interaction in online learning, where AI agents can connect socially isolated online learners by providing personalized social recommendations to online learners based on information extracted from students’ posts on the online class discussion forums.

Chelsea received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Informatics from the University of Washington, Seattle. In her free time, Chelsea loves hiking, playing with her cat, Gouda, and spending time at bouldering gyms. 

To learn more about Chelsea and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Conversing with AI: Interview with Chelsea Wang about Communications with Artificial Intelligence Systems (Part 2 of 3)

Chelsea Wang has spent many years trying to improve the cognitive process of artificial intelligence systems to better interact with humans. In this second part of our conversation, she explains her theories about metacognition, intelligence, and potential anthropomorphization of AI “thought” processes. Through this, she explicates her vision and approach to the potential social life of AI.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

More about Chelsea:

Qiaosi Wang (Chelsea) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Chelsea is a human-centered AI researcher and her PhD dissertation work focuses on building the Mutual Theory of Mind framework, inspired by the basic human capability to surmise what is happening in others’ minds (also known as “Theory of Mind”), to enhance mutual understanding between humans and AIs during human-AI communication. Her work specifically focuses on the human-AI communication process during AI-mediated social interaction in online learning, where AI agents can connect socially isolated online learners by providing personalized social recommendations to online learners based on information extracted from students’ posts on the online class discussion forums.

Chelsea received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Informatics from the University of Washington, Seattle. In her free time, Chelsea loves hiking, playing with her cat, Gouda, and spending time at bouldering gyms. 

To learn more about Chelsea and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Conversing with AI: Interview with Chelsea Wang about Communications with Artificial Intelligence Systems (Part 1 of 3)

Chelsea Wang describes her work developing and refining the communication processes between artificial intelligence and humans, particularly the Mutual Theory of Mind framework she has helped build. As a doctoral student in Human-Computer Interaction, she also discusses her journey from human psychology to the social interactions of AI.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

More about Chelsea:

Qiaosi Wang (Chelsea) is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Georgia Institute of Technology. Chelsea is a human-centered AI researcher and her PhD dissertation work focuses on building the Mutual Theory of Mind framework, inspired by the basic human capability to surmise what is happening in others’ minds (also known as “Theory of Mind”), to enhance mutual understanding between humans and AIs during human-AI communication. Her work specifically focuses on the human-AI communication process during AI-mediated social interaction in online learning, where AI agents can connect socially isolated online learners by providing personalized social recommendations to online learners based on information extracted from students’ posts on the online class discussion forums.

Chelsea received her Bachelor of Science degrees in Psychology and Informatics from the University of Washington, Seattle. In her free time, Chelsea loves hiking, playing with her cat, Gouda, and spending time at bouldering gyms. 

To learn more about Chelsea and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Becoming a Business Anthropologist: Interview with Oscar Barrera (Part 3 of 3)

In this final part of the Interview, Oscar Barrera shows how he has used qualitative insights along with quantiative data as a business anthropologist to help organizations improve their product. Talking with customers provides an invaluable way to understand their needs, mindset, and decisions.

Oscar Barrera is a Corporate Anthropologist based in Veracruz, Eastern México.  He is the CEO of Corporate Anthropology Consulting and has been working with successful companies and organizations for 8 years helping them to innovate by finding unseen opportunities to grow their businesses and improve their organizational culture. Oscar is also a keynote speaker and is the founder and host of the Podcast Nuevas Posibilidades (New Possibilities) focused on innovation and businesses. Feel free to check out his podcast here as well: https://antropologiacorporativa.mx/podcast/.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

To learn more about Oscar and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Becoming a Business Anthropologist: Interview with Oscar Barrera (Part 2 of 3)

In Part 2 of our Interview, Oscar Barrera explains how to get yourself out there in order to find clients and how he used coaching to help improve his mindset in such a way that enabled him to pursue his goals. Working through one’s current mindset through coaching can work wonders in helping people grow occupationally or personally, as Oscar attests.

Oscar Barrera is a Corporate Anthropologist based in Veracruz, Eastern México.  He is the CEO of Corporate Anthropology Consulting and has been working with successful companies and organizations for 8 years helping them to innovate by finding unseen opportunities to grow their businesses and improve their organizational culture. Oscar is also a keynote speaker and is the founder and host of the Podcast Nuevas Posibilidades (New Possibilities) focused on innovation and businesses. Feel free to check out his podcast here as well: https://antropologiacorporativa.mx/podcast/.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

To learn more about Oscar and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Becoming a Business Anthropologist: Interview with Oscar Barrera (Part 1 of 3)

In this next interview in my Series, Oscar Barrera describes how he learned to use anthropology to help businesses improve their products. In this first part, he discusses how he became a business anthropologist and how the business world has shaped his philosophy and approach to work.

Oscar Barrera is a Corporate Anthropologist based in Veracruz, Eastern México.  He is the CEO of Corporate Anthropology Consulting. He has been working with successful companies and organizations for 8 years helping them to innovate by finding unseen opportunities to grow their businesses and improve their organizational culture. Oscar is also a keynote speaker and is the founder and host of the Podcast Nuevas Posibilidades (New Possibilities) focused on innovation and businesses.  Feel free to check out his podcast here as well: https://antropologiacorporativa.mx/podcast/.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

To learn more about Oscar and the sources we referenced in our conversation:

Data Science Storytelling: Quantitative UX Research in Google Cloud with Randy Au (Part 2 of 2)

In this second part of my interview with Randy Au, he discusses the techniques he used to teach himself to code and his approach to programming and data science as a social scientist.

Here is Part 1 of our interview.

Prior to joining Google, he spent a decade as a mixture of a data analyst, data scientist, and data engineer at various startups in New York City and before that, studied Communications. In his newsletter, he discusses data science topics like data collection and data quality from a social science perspective. Outside of work he often engages in far too many hobbies, taken to absurd lengths.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series this is a part of.

More about Randy:

Data Science Storytelling: Quantitative UX Research in Google Cloud with Randy Au (Part 1 of 2)

Randy Au, a Quantitative UX Researcher at Google, explains how he leverages his backgrounds in communication, statistics, and programming as a quantitative UX researcher in Google Cloud to analyze and improve Cloud Storage products.

Here is Part 2 of our interview.

Prior to joining Google, he spent a decade as a mixture of a data analyst, data scientist, and data engineer at various startups in New York City and before that, studied Communications. In his newsletter, he discusses data science topics like data collection and data quality from a social science perspective. Outside of work he often engages in far too many hobbies, taken to an absurd lengths.

Click here to learn more about the Interview Series.

More about Randy:

Designing Machine Learning Products Anthropologically: Building Relatable Machine Learning

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How do we build relatable machine learning models that regular people can understand? This is a presentation about how design principles apply to the development of machine learning systems. Too often in data science, machine learning software is not built with regular people who will interact with it in mind.

I argue that in order to make machine learning software relatable, we need to use design thinking to intentionally build in mechanisms for users to form their own mental models of how the machine learning software works. Failing to include theses helps cultivate the common sense that machine learning is a black box for users.

I gave three different versions of this talk at Quant UX Con on June 8th, 2022, the Royal Institute of Anthropology’s annual conference on June 10th, 2022, and Google’s AI + Design Tooling Research Symposium on August 5th, 2022.

I hope you find it interesting and feel free to share any thoughts you might have.

Thank you for the conference and talk organizers for making this happen, and I appreciate all the insightful conversations I had about the role of design thinking in building relatable machine learning.

Trash Data Science: Garbology, Anthropology, and Spatial Data Science – Conversation with Gideon Singer (Part Four)

Here is the fourth and final part of my interview with Gideon Singer, Director of Spacial Data Science at Litterati, for my Interview Series. He describes the strategies he uses to collect data as a garbologist and data scientist.

Here is Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 of our interview.

Gideon Singer is an applied anthropologist in the business of exploring societies through the waste, litter, rubbish, and other detritus they leave behind. As a self-proclaimed digital garbologist, his work juxtaposes digital ethnography with archaeology and spatial data science.

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