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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Big day today with Joy Ming graduating!! A new doctor in town! Can’t wait to see all the incredible things Joy will take on next. So proud!

Aditya and Joy wearing regalia and posing in front of a bright red background!

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Thank you to all our participants, co-organizers, student volunteers, funders, and partners who made this possible. And to Joy Ming for the beautiful visual summaries.

Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Our conversations spanned:
🔷 Meaningful use cases of AI in high-stakes global settings
🔷 Interdisciplinary methods across computing and humanities
🔷 Partnerships between academia, industry, and civil society
🔷 The value of local knowledge, lived experiences, and participatory design

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Over three days, we explored what it means to design and govern pluralistic and humanistic AI technologies — ones that serve diverse communities, respect cultural contexts, and center social well-being. The summit was part of the Global AI Initiative at Cornell.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Yesterday we wrapped up the Thought Summit on LLMs and Society at Cornell — an energizing and deeply reflective gathering of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from across institutions and geographies.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 23

Thank you Dhanaraj for attending the Thought Summit and sharing your thoughts on how we can design AI for All!

Dhanaraj Thakur @thakurdhanaraj.bsky.social · May 22

It was great to contribute to discussions at this event organized by @imadityav.bsky.social and others at Cornell.
I was also fortunate to speak on a really interesting closing panel and look forward to supporting this work.
globalai.ai.cornell.edu/thought-summ...

#globalai #llms

Thought Summit: LLMs and Society | Global AI Initiative

globalai.ai.cornell.edu

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

This was the week of reflection, new ideas, and a renewed sense of urgency to design AI systems that serve marginalized communities globally. Can't wait for what's next.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Pragnya Ramjee presented work (with Mohit Jain at MSR India) on deploying LLM tools for community health workers in India. In collaboration with Khushi Baby, we show how thoughtful AI design can (and cannot) bridge critical informational gaps in low-resource settings.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

ASHABot: An LLM-Powered Chatbot to Support the Informational Needs of Community Health Workers | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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dl.acm.org

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Ian René Solano-Kamaiko presented our study on how algorithmic tools are already shaping home care work—often invisibly. These systems threaten workers’ autonomy and safety, underscoring the need for stronger protections and democratic AI governance.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

"Who is running it?" Towards Equitable AI Deployment in Home Care Work | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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dl.acm.org

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Joy Ming presented our award-winning paper on designing advocacy tools for home care workers. In this work, we unpack tensions between individual and collective goals and highlight how to use data responsibly in frontline labor organizing.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Exploring Data-Driven Advocacy in Home Health Care Work | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

dl.acm.org

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Dhruv presented our cross-cultural study on AI writing tools and their Western-centric biases. We found that AI suggestions disproportionately benefit American users and subtly nudge Indian users toward Western writing norms—raising concerns about cultural homogenization.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

AI Suggestions Homogenize Writing Toward Western Styles and Diminish Cultural Nuances | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Sharon Heung presented our work on personalizing moderation tools to help disabled users manage ableist content online. We showed how users want control over filtering and framing—while also expressing deep skepticism toward AI-based moderation.
dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

"Ignorance is not Bliss": Designing Personalized Moderation to Address Ableist Hate on Social Media | Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

dl.acm.org

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Just wrapped up an incredible week at #CHI2025 in Yokohama with Joy Ming, @sharonheung.bsky.social, Dhruv Agarwal, and Ian René Solano-Kamaiko! We presented several papers that push the boundaries of what Globally Equitable AI could look like in high-stakes contexts.

Dhruv, Sharon, Aditya, Jiamin, Ian, and Joy in front of buildings and trees surrounded by a lush green landscape.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

www.fastcompany.com/91324551/cha...

Kudos to Dhruv Agarwal for leading this work and such fun collaboration with @informor.bsky.social!

Why writing with ChatGPT makes you sound like an American

A new study from Cornell University suggests some large generative AI models have a Western bias that strips away cultural nuance.

www.fastcompany.com

Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

As these tools become more common, it’s critical to ask: Whose voice is being amplified—and whose is being erased? www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...

The Great Language Flattening

Chatbots learned from human writing. Now it’s their turn to influence us.

www.theatlantic.com

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · May 2

Excited to see our research in The Atlantic and Fast Company!

Our work, presented at #CHI2025 this week, shows how AI writing suggestions often nudge people toward Western styles, unintentionally flattening cultural expression and nuance.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 26

Excited to be at #CHI2025 with Joy Ming, Sharon Heung, Dhruv Agarwal, and Ian Rene Solano-Kamaiko!

Our lab will be presenting several papers Globally Equitable AI — centering equity, culture, and inclusivity in high-stakes contexts. 🌎

If you’ll be there, would love to connect! 🖐️

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

Huge congratulations to Mahika Phutane for leading this work, and Ananya Seelam for her contributions!

We’re thrilled to share this at ACM FAccT 2025.

Read the full paper: lnkd.in/eCsAupvK

Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

Our findings make a clear case: AI moderation systems must center disabled people’s expertise, especially when defining harm and safety.

This isn’t just a technical problem—it’s about power, voice, and representation.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

Disabled participants frequently described these AI explanations as “condescending” or “dehumanizing.”

The models reflect a clinical, outsider gaze—rather than lived experience or structural understanding.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

AI systems often underestimate ableism—even in clear-cut cases of discrimination or microaggressions.

And when they do explain their decisions? The explanations are vague, euphemistic, or moralizing.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

We studied how AI systems detect and explain ableist content—and how that compares to judgments from 130 disabled participants.

We also analyzed explanations from 7 major LLMs and toxicity classifiers. The gaps are stark.

Methodology of our paper, starting with creating a dataset containing ableist and non-ableist post, followed by collecting and analyzing ratings and explanations from AI models and disabled and non-disabled participants.

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 12

Our paper, “Cold, Calculated, and Condescending”: How AI Identifies and Explains Ableism Compared to Disabled People, has been accepted at ACM FAccT 2025!

A quick thread on what we found:

The image of our Arxiv Photo with paper title and author list: Mahika Phutane, Ananya Seelam, and Aditya Vashistha

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Aditya Vashistha @imadityav.bsky.social · Apr 2

Excited to be at @umich.edu this week to speak at Democracy’s Information Dilemma event, and at the Social Media and Society conference! Hard to believe it’s been since 2016 that I was last here. Can’t wait for engaging conversations, new ideas, and reconnecting with colleagues old and new!

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Reposted by Aditya Vashistha

Cornell Bowers Computing and Information Science @cornellbowers.bsky.social · Jan 6

NEW YEAR, NEW PLATFORM? 👀

Bowers is joining the Bluesky community! Follow to stay updated on technology innovation, collaborative research, and faculty expertise.

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