Stanford Seminar - AI Audits and Autonomy

April 4, 2025 Karrie Karahalios, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sociotechnical systems enable large-scale connection and the dissemination of timely, engaging information. However, these systems are shaped by complex, often invisible governance structures--comprising rules, roles, and relationships--that significantly influence how they operate. Gaining even a basic understanding of these governance structures is key to using them more effectively and deliberately. Yet, many of the millions who depend on these systems are unaware of the governance mechanisms at play or their own degree of autonomy within them. In this talk, I will present methods to uncover invisible governance structures, illustrate the illusion of control, and emphasize the importance of amplifying silenced voices to reshape both governance and our relationship with technology and one another. About the speaker: Dr. Karrie Karahalios is a University Scholar and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Illinois where she directs the Social Spaces Group, co-directs of the Center for Just Infrastructures and co-leads the Community Data Clinic. Dr. Karahalios' research focuses on AI and community-centered computing. She studies and builds socio-technical systems in the domains of algorithm justice, algorithmically-mediated social media feeds, content-moderation systems, accessibility, group dynamics, and smart infrastructures to name a few. She, with her colleagues introduced the concept of Algorithm Audits, and in 2016, she was one of several plaintiffs on a suit filed by the ACLU against the US Attorney General arguing that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) is unconstitutional because it criminalizes audit testing research on algorithms that perpetuate discrimination based on race and gender, especially in housing and employment. More about the course can be found here: https://hci.stanford.edu/seminar/ View the entire CS547 Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Semina