Technology
December 18, 2024
Q&A: New AI training method lets systems better adjust to users’ values
University of Washington researchers created a method for training AI systems — both for large language models like ChatGPT and for robots — that can better reflect users’ diverse values. It predicts users’ preferences as they interact with it, then tailors its outputs accordingly.
December 17, 2024
Q&A: Will the next generation of AI be agents that can shop autonomously?
Chirag Shah, a UW professor in the Information School, discusses what AI agents are and what might impede a near future where people can simply get AI bots to shop for them.
November 21, 2024
Q&A: Promises and perils of AI in medicine, according to UW experts in public health and AI
UW News sat down with experts in public health and AI to discuss AI could enhance health care, what’s standing in the way, and whether there’s a downside to democratizing medical research.
November 20, 2024
In the ‘Wild West’ of AI chatbots, subtle biases related to race and caste often go unchecked
University of Washington researchers developed a system for detecting subtle biases in AI models. They found seven of the eight popular AI models they tested in conversations around race and caste generated significant amounts of biased text in interactions — particularly when discussing caste. Open-source models fared far worse than two proprietary ChatGPT models.
November 18, 2024
Q&A: UW professor discusses how academia can help battery manufacturing in the US
Jie Xiao, University of Washington professor of mechanical engineering, talks about batteries and how academia can help support the growing domestic battery manufacturing industry.
Q&A: A new medical AI model can help spot systemic disease by looking at a range of image types
UW assistant professor Sheng Wang discusses BiomedParse, an AI medical image analysis model that works across nine types of medical images to better predict systemic diseases. Medical professionals can load images into the system and ask the AI tool questions about them in plain English.
November 14, 2024
AI headphones create a ‘sound bubble,’ quieting all sounds more than a few feet away
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created a headphone prototype that allows listeners to hear people speaking within a bubble with a programmable radius of 3 to 6 feet. Voices and sounds outside the bubble are quieted an average of 49 decibels, even if they’re louder than those in the bubble.
October 31, 2024
AI tools show biases in ranking job applicants’ names according to perceived race and gender
University of Washington researchers found significant racial, gender and intersectional bias in how three state-of-the-art large language models ranked resumes. The models favored white-associated names 85% of the time, female-associated names only 11% of the time, and never favored Black male-associated names over white male-associated names.
October 23, 2024
From accessibility upgrades to a custom cat-food bowl, this mobile 3D printer can autonomously add features to a room
University of Washington researchers created MobiPrint, a mobile 3D printer that can automatically measure a room and print objects onto the floor. The team’s graphic interface lets users design objects in a space that the robot has mapped out. The prototype, which the team built on a modified consumer vacuum robot, can add a range of objects to rooms.
September 17, 2024
AI researcher discusses the new version of ChatGPT’s advances in math and reasoning
Niloofar Mireshghallah, a UW postdoctoral scholar, discusses why math and reasoning have so challenged artificial intelligence models and what the public should know about OpenAI’s new release.
August 28, 2024
Large language models can help detect social media bots — but can also make the problem worse
A team led by University of Washington researchers found that large language models, such as ChatGPT, can make social media bots more sophisticated at evading detection. But these models can also improve systems that detect bots.
August 8, 2024
Many survey respondents rated seeking out sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ as more acceptable than creating or sharing them
In a survey of 315 people conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and Georgetown University, respondents largely found creating and sharing sexually explicit “deepfakes” unacceptable. But far fewer respondents strongly opposed seeking out these media. Previous research has shown that other people viewing non-AI image-based abuse harms the victims significantly.
August 7, 2024
Using photos or videos, these AI systems can conjure simulations that train robots to function in physical spaces
Two new studies introduce AI systems that use either video or photos to create simulations that can train robots to function in the real world. This could significantly lower the costs of training robots to function in complex settings.
July 25, 2024
How iBuyers are changing real estate racial disparities and individual homeownership rates in one major city
University of Washington researchers investigated how iBuyers — companies that use automated algorithms to quickly buy and sell homes — have affected the well-documented racial bias against Black home sellers. Looking at Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, they found that on average iBuyers paid more equal prices to Black and white home sellers than individual buyers, largely because iBuyers paid white sellers significantly less on average than an individual buyer. They also discovered that iBuyers were significantly more likely to resell homes to institutions, such as large rental companies that’ve been tied to high eviction rates and rent-gouging.
July 16, 2024
Even on Instagram, teens mostly feel bored
New research from the University of Washington finds that teens open Instagram because they’re bored. Then they sift through largely irrelevant content, mostly feeling bored, while seeking interesting bits to share with their friends in direct messages. Then, eventually bored with what researchers call a “content soup,” they log off.
June 21, 2024
ChatGPT is biased against resumes with credentials that imply a disability — but it can improve
UW researchers found that ChatGPT consistently ranked resumes with disability-related honors and credentials — such as the “Tom Wilson Disability Leadership Award” — lower than the same resumes without those honors and credentials. But when researchers customized the tool with written instructions directing it not to be ableist, the tool reduced this bias for all but one of the disabilities tested.
June 11, 2024
Q&A: Why social media rarely leads to constructive political action
But in her new book “Log Off: Why Posting and Politics (Almost) Never Mix,” Katherine Cross, a UW doctoral student in the Information School, argues that social media has limited political value.
May 29, 2024
Q&A: How AI affects kids’ creativity
“We asked one 11-year-old how he’d feel if his favorite book series was written by AI instead of an author, and he said it would ‘dismantle’ the joy of reading for him. We often don’t think about kids having these deep, existential questions about what it means to be an artist,” said Michele Newman, a University of Washington doctoral student in the Information School.
May 23, 2024
AI headphones let wearer listen to a single person in a crowd, by looking at them just once
A University of Washington team has developed an artificial intelligence system that lets someone wearing headphones look at a person speaking for three to five seconds to “enroll” them. The system then plays just the enrolled speaker’s voice in real time, even as the pair move around in noisy environments.
May 15, 2024
Q&A: How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect older adults’ technology use?
University of Washington researchers interviewed 16 older adults in Washington and Oregon, ages 65 to 80, about how their technology use with their social support networks changed during the pandemic.
May 9, 2024
Can Wikipedia-like citations on YouTube curb misinformation?
University of Washington researchers created and tested a prototype browser extension called Viblio, which lets viewers and creators add citations to the timelines of YouTube videos.
May 1, 2024
Virtual reality environment for teens may offer an accessible, affordable way to reduce stress
Working with teens, UW researchers have designed RESeT: a snowy virtual world with six activities intended to improve mood. In a 3-week study of 44 Seattle-area teens, researchers found that most used the technology about twice a week without being prompted and reported lower stress levels after using the environment.
April 26, 2024
New circuit boards can be repeatedly recycled
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed a new PCB that performs on par with traditional materials and can be recycled repeatedly with negligible material loss. Researchers used a solvent that transforms a type of vitrimer — a cutting-edge class of polymer — into a jelly-like substance without damage, allowing solid components to be plucked out for reuse or recycling. With these “vPCBs” (vitrimer printed circuit boards), researchers recovered 98% of the vitrimer and 100% of the glass fiber.
April 24, 2024
Q&A: How TikTok’s ‘black box’ algorithm and design shape user behavior
Franziska Roesner, a University of Washington associate professor, and collaborators will present two papers that mine real-world data to help understand TikTok’s personalized its recommendation algorithm and its impact.
March 28, 2024
Q&A: How to train AI when you don’t have enough data
As researchers explore potential applications for AI, they have found scenarios where AI could be really useful but there’s not enough data to accurately train the algorithms. Jenq-Neng Hwang, University of Washington professor of electrical and computer and engineering, specializes in these issues.
March 14, 2024
UW researchers taught kids to code with cultural research and embroidery machines
University of Washington researchers taught a group of high schoolers to code by combining cultural research into various embroidery traditions with “computational embroidery.” The method teaches kids to encode embroidery patterns on a computer through a coding language called Turtlestitch.
March 11, 2024
Q&A: How Instagram influencers profit from anti-vaccine misinformation
New research from the UW examines how three wellness Instagram influencers profited from anti-vaccine misinformation.
February 15, 2024
Q&A: What is the best route to fairer AI systems?
Mike Teodorescu, a University of Washington assistant professor in the Information School, proposes that private enterprise standards for fairer machine learning systems would inform governmental regulation.
February 7, 2024
Q&A: Helping robots identify objects in cluttered spaces
Robots in warehouses and even around our houses struggle to identify and pick up objects if they are too close together, or if a space is cluttered. This is because robots lack what psychologists call “object unity,” or our ability to identify things even when we can’t see all of them. Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a way to teach robots this skill.
UW-developed smart earrings can monitor a person’s temperature
University of Washington researchers introduced the Thermal Earring, a wireless wearable that continuously monitors a user’s earlobe temperature. Potential applications include tracking signs of ovulation, stress, eating and exercise. The smart earring prototype is about the size and weight of a small paperclip and has a 28-day battery life.
January 9, 2024
Q&A: UW researchers answer common questions about language models like ChatGPT
A team University of Washington researchers have published a guide explaining language models, the technology that underlies chatbots.
November 29, 2023
AI image generator Stable Diffusion perpetuates racial and gendered stereotypes, study finds
University of Washington researchers found that when prompted to make pictures of “a person,” the AI image generator over-represented light-skinned men, failed to equitably represent Indigenous peoples and sexualized images of certain women of color.
November 16, 2023
Q&A: How an assistive-feeding robot went from picking up fruit salads to whole meals
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington developed 11 actions a robotic arm can make to pick up nearly any food attainable by fork. This allows the system to learn to pick up new foods during one meal.
November 15, 2023
WhaleVis turns more than a century of whaling data into an interactive map
A team at the University of Washington has created an interactive dashboard called WhaleVis, which lets users map data on global whale catches and whaling routes from 1880 to 1986. Scientists can compare this historical data and its trends with current information to better understand whale populations over time.
November 9, 2023
New AI noise-canceling headphone technology lets wearers pick which sounds they hear
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has developed deep-learning algorithms that let users pick which sounds filter through their headphones in real time. Either through voice commands or a smartphone app, headphone wearers can select which sounds they want to include from 20 classes, such as sirens, baby cries, speech, vacuum cleaners and bird chirps.
November 2, 2023
Can AI help boost accessibility? These researchers tested it for themselves
Seven researchers at the University of Washington conducted a three-month autoethnographic study — drawing on their own experiences as people with and without disabilities — to test AI tools’ utility for accessibility. Though researchers found cases in which the tools were helpful, they also found significant problems.
October 30, 2023
A Google Slides extension can make presentation software more accessible for blind users
A team led by researchers at the University of Washington has created A11yBoard for Google Slides, a browser extension and phone or tablet app that allows blind users to navigate through complex slide layouts, objects, images and text.
October 24, 2023
How can social media be better? Four UW researchers compare strategies
The turmoil at large tech platforms has many people reconsidering what they want out of social media. Four researchers at the University of Washington are exploring different approaches to improve people’s experiences.
October 17, 2023
Q&A: Researchers aim to improve accessibility with augmented reality
This month, University of Washington researchers will introduce multiple projects that deploy augmented reality — through headsets and phone apps — with the aim of making the world more accessible for people with disabilities.
September 27, 2023
MilliMobile is a tiny, self-driving robot powered only by light and radio waves
The robot, equipped with a solar panel–like energy harvester and four wheels, is about the size of a penny, weighs as much as a raisin and can move about the length of a bus in an hour on a cloudy day.
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