Welcome
Take a look at the exciting program we have put together for you for CHIWORK 2024!
The main conference will take place on Tuesday afternoon, all day Wednesday and all day Thursday. The program will offer keynotes, the full paper presentations, a conversation panel track, as well as posters and demos, and a town hall. Please find the overview and the individual sessions below.
On Tuesday morning we will also have a Student Consortium. Students will present their ongoing work and discuss it with other students and seniors in the field.
WiP posters & Demos will be held during two dedicated slots on Wednesday 26th, during the morning and afternoon coffee breaks. WiP & Demos authors are welcome to set up their posters & demos before the start of the conference day on Wednesday 26th.
Wednesday 26th evening we will have a conference social dinner from 7pm.
All times are in UTC or BST (British Summer Time).
Keynotes
Opening Keynote
25th of June
Mark Graham
Professor @ Oxford Internet Institute
Rewiring the Extraction Machine
Abstract
Artificial intelligence is often conceived of as a mirror of human intelligence, an attempt to ‘solve intelligence’ by reproducing the processes that occur within a human mind. But, instead, the perspective that I want to use in this talk is one that my co-authors and I develop in our new book, ‘Feeding the Machine’. AI is an ‘extraction machine’. When we engage with AI products as users or consumers we only see one surface of the machine and the outputs it produces. The extraction machine draws in critical inputs of capital, power, natural resources, human labour, data and collective intelligence and transforms these into statistical predictions, which AI companies, in turn, transform into profits. To do this, it requires command over material infrastructure, over workers, and over knowledge. This talk uses a case study of data annotation workers in Kenya to shed light on how they have no way of extracting any meaningful amount of value or concessions out of the system. They have no way to break the cycle of extraction. The talk also introduces the Fairwork action research project, as a way of illustrating how research can be deployed to force firms to act more responsibly.
Bio
Mark Graham is the Professor of Internet Geography at the Oxford Internet Institute, a Faculty Fellow at the Alan Turing Institute, and an Associate in the University of Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment. He is also the Director of the 38-country Fairwork project. He leads a range of research projects spanning topics between digital labour, the gig economy, internet geographies, and ICTs and development. He has written a number of books, including The Digital Continent: Placing Africa in Planetary Networks of Work, Geographies of Digital Exclusion: Data and Inequality, and The Gig Economy: A Critical Introduction. His latest book ‘Feeding the Machine’ will be out in Summer 2024.
Closing Keynote
27th of June
Jacki O’Neill
Director @ Microsoft Research Africa
The future of work: Can Workplace HCI save (us from) Generative AI?
Abstract
Generative AI is likely to transform work in ways as yet unimagined. The ability to process and produce human like natural language at a quality never before seen is leading to widespread predictions for how this technology will transform work and society – from utopian to dystopian visions of the future. However, so far the design and building of Generative AI has been largely a technical enterprise – driven by specialists in machine learning, natural language processing (NLP) and engineering – predominately by companies in the Global North (especially North America). The consequences of this have quickly become evident as this latest generation of AI tools have become available globally to anyone with a device and internet connection. In this talk, I will discuss some of the opportunities, challenges and tensions around the transformation of work with Generative AI. I will discuss the importance of taking a multidisciplinary approach, including a critical analysis of the role of workplace HCI in designing better futures of work for everyone.
Bio
Jacki O’Neill is Director of Microsoft Research Africa (formerly MARI). She is passionate about designing technologies which enhance, rather than remove, agency and create sustainable futures. She brings this passion to Microsoft Research Africa where she is building a multi-disciplinary team, combining research, engineering and design to solve local problems globally. An ethnographer by trade, in her research career so far she has focused on technologies for work – with the aim of making work better; and technologies for societal impact, with the aim of supporting underserved communities.
Saiph Savage
Assistant Professor @ Northeastern University
Unveiling AI driven collective action for a worker-centric future
Abstract
In today’s dynamic gig economy, workers on platforms like Upwork, Amazon Mechanical Turk, and Toloka face daunting labor challenges. Despite the potential of collective action to significantly improve these conditions, its implementation is hindered by inadequate systems for identifying and resolving issues.
During my keynote, I will unveil my Innovative A.I. For Worker Collective Action framework, embedded in social theories. This talk will highlight how we can harness Large Language Models (LLMs), coupled with social theories and worker-owned data, to develop technologies that are worker-centric. These technologies not only empower workers to shape their own futures but also address existing harms. I will showcase case studies that exemplify the practical application of this framework, illustrating its potential to improve the future of work. The session will culminate in a forward-looking discussion on a research agenda aimed at exploring the societal impacts of A.I. and crafting effective socio-technical solutions that consistently put worker wellbeing at the forefront.
Bio
Saiph Savage is an Assistant Professor at Northeastern University in the Khoury College of Computer Sciences where she conducts research in the intersection of Human Computer Interaction, A.I., and Civic Technology. She is one of the 35 Innovators under 35 by the MIT Technology Review, a Google Anita Borg Scholarship recipient, and a fellow at the Center for Democracy & Technology. Her work has been covered in the BBC, Deutsche Welle, the Economist, and the New York Times, as well as published in top venues such as ACM CHI, CSCW, and the Web Conference, where she has also won honorable mentions and impact awards. Dr. Savage has been awarded grants from the National Science Foundation, the United Nations, diverse industry actors, and has also formalized new collaborations with Federal and local Governments where she is driving them to adopt Human Centered Design and A.I. to deliver better experiences and government services for citizens. Dr. Savage students have obtained fellowships and internships in industry (Facebook Research, Twitch Research, Twitter, Snap, and Microsoft Research) as well as academia (Oxford Internet Institute). Saiph holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and a master’s and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Dr. Savage has also worked at the University of Washington, and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). Additionally, Dr. Savage has been a tech worker at Microsoft Bing, Intel Labs, and a crowd research worker at Stanford.