Ken Holstein

I am an Assistant Professor in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, where I direct the CMU CoALA Lab.

My research focuses broadly on participatory and expertise-driven approaches to AI design, development, and evaluation, with a particular interest in AI's impacts on human workers. I draw on approaches from human–computer interaction (HCI), AI, design, cognitive science, learning sciences, statistics, and machine learning, among other areas.

I am deeply interested in: (1) understanding the gaps between human and artificial intelligence, and (2) using this knowledge to design systems that respect human work, elevating human expertise and on-the-ground knowledge rather than diminishing it. To support these goals, my research develops new methods and interactive tools to integrate diverse human expertise (e.g., domain expertise, lived expertise, and technical expertise) across the AI development lifecycle.

My work has been generously supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), The Block Center for Technology and Society, CASMI & UL Research Institutes, PwC, Notre-Dame IBM Technology Ethics Lab, Microsoft Research, Google Research, Amazon Research, Cisco Research, Apple, IES, Jacobs Foundation, Metro21, PIT-UN, MetaGov, and Prolific.

You can find my recent publications on my Google Scholar page and my CV.