Harmanpreet Kaur's Avatar

Harmanpreet Kaur

@harmankaur.bsky.social

Assistant professor at University of Minnesota CS. Human-centered AI, interpretable ML, hybrid intelligence systems.

690 Followers  |  295 Following  |  6 Posts  |  Joined: 19.11.2024  |  1.7666

Latest posts by harmankaur.bsky.social on Bluesky

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me? Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me? Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

22.08.2025 14:20 — 👍 19010    🔁 8659    💬 37    📌 356

Sad to miss #FAccT2025 in person next week, but very excited for @malik-khadar.bsky.social to present our work on measurement of user characteristics for decision-making in XAI-assisted settings. It's also Malik's first conference -- please say hi to him if you're in Athens next week.

18.06.2025 18:03 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

A proud advisor moment getting to see @masooman.bsky.social virtually present our #CHI2025 paper!

01.05.2025 01:36 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Paper link: harmanpk.github.io/Papers/CHI20...

29.04.2025 15:06 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Interestingly, when using these tools to generate artifacts, all levels consistently noted genAI outputs were not sufficient. We think this novelty bias towards AI is changing jobs when there's very little nuanced understanding of where generative AI can actually support designers *in practice.*

29.04.2025 15:06 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Differences in these cross-level stakeholders' value systems were stark, with professionals resigned to shifting job requirements and worried about what foundational design skills will look like going forward. This is not entirely surprising, though significantly present across all questions asked.

29.04.2025 15:06 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 1    📌 0

Sad to miss #CHI2025 in person. @masooman.bsky.social will be presenting remotely on Wednesday, results from an interesting cross-level study with design students (pre- and post-genAI) and professionals to understand their different value systems and usage with respect to generative AI in design.

29.04.2025 15:06 — 👍 10    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 1

Writing is thinking.

It’s not a part of the process that can be skipped; it’s the entire point.

12.12.2024 15:08 — 👍 6835    🔁 1792    💬 158    📌 150
Questions to ask when collecting data What are the norms and expectations of the people represented by this data? How could individuals and/or communities be harmed by this use and/or the dissemination of the data? Who benefits from the use? Are the people benefiting the same ones who face potential harms? What could you do to mitigate the potential for harm and/or increase the likelihood of benefits? Can you answer these questions well enough to suggest that you are the right person to conduct this research or do this work?

Questions to ask when collecting data What are the norms and expectations of the people represented by this data? How could individuals and/or communities be harmed by this use and/or the dissemination of the data? Who benefits from the use? Are the people benefiting the same ones who face potential harms? What could you do to mitigate the potential for harm and/or increase the likelihood of benefits? Can you answer these questions well enough to suggest that you are the right person to conduct this research or do this work?

Last week I gave a talk titled "When Data Is People: Ethics, Privacy and Ownership in Research & AI Uses of Public Data" that tied together this research ethics work with generative AI training data and also copyright. Here's one of the final slides.

27.11.2024 16:12 — 👍 146    🔁 30    💬 4    📌 2
Preview
CHI 2026 Open Call for Volunteers Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.

CHI 2026 Barcelona Open Call for volunteers is Open! Please sign up to join the team! This is for organizing and technical committees (excluding subcommittee chairs and area chairs for the papers program…that comes later). Details in the submission form. www.surveymonkey.com/r/GGPYYPD

18.11.2024 19:00 — 👍 30    🔁 18    💬 2    📌 0

@harmankaur is following 20 prominent accounts