Chirag Shah Archives - Information Matters

Author: Chirag Shah

Author

Chirag Shah

Dr. Chirag Shah is a Professor in Information School, an Adjunct Professor in Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, and an Adjunct Professor in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) at University of Washington (UW). He is the Founding Director of InfoSeeking Lab and the Founding Co-Director of RAISE, a Center for Responsible AI. He is also the Founding Editor-in-Chief of Information Matters.

His research revolves around intelligent systems. On one hand, he is trying to make search and recommendation systems smart, proactive, and integrated. On the other hand, he is investigating how such systems can be made fair, transparent, and ethical. The former area is Search/Recommendation and the latter falls under Responsible AI. They both create interesting synergy, resulting in Human-Centered ML/AI.

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Editorial, Featured

Ship It, Then Apologize: We Can Do Better Than This for AI Advancements

by Chirag Shah June 14, 2026 0

Three days. That's how long Fable 5 lasted before the U.S. government ordered Anthropic to switch it off worldwide, citing a vaguely described "jailbreak" and an... Read more.

Editorial

In Defense of (Human-led) Science

by Chirag Shah February 10, 2026 0

Doing science is not the same thing as producing science. Science, at its core, is a profoundly human activity. It involves not just generating knowledge but developing... Read more.

Editorial

Agentic Algorithmic Amplification and The Choices We Face

by Chirag Shah December 13, 2025 0

Whether we like it or not, know it or not, we have been living in the agentic age of algorithms long before the recent rush to building agentic systems. None of... Read more.

Editorial

Oil and Water: Why We Need to Stop Forcing Human-AI “Collaboration”

by Chirag Shah October 9, 2025 0

We've been sold a lie about human-AI collaboration. The truth is far more unsettling: humans and AI don't operate on different levels—they operate in fundamentally... Read more.

Editorial

The Chatbot Crisis: Why We’re Failing Our Children Before They Even Ask for Help

by Chirag Shah September 18, 2025 0

AI chatbots become less safe the longer you talk to them, yet mental health conversations are precisely the extended dialogues where safety fails most catastrophically.... Read more.

Editorial

Is AI the New Plastic?

by Chirag Shah August 13, 2025 0

AI is the new plastic because our relationship to it is proving just as short-termist. There isn't enough evidence to suggest that we are planning, as a planet,... Read more.

Editorial

How Do You Like Them Agents?

by Chirag Shah June 10, 2025 0

As autonomous agent technologies rapidly permeate our digital landscape, a critical question emerges: what roles should computational agents fulfill to best augment... Read more.

Editorial

Here Come Agents

by Chirag Shah February 27, 2025 0

An agent is an autonomous entity or program that takes preferences, instructions, or other forms of inputs from a user to accomplish specific tasks on their behalf.... Read more.

Editorial

Can We Really Control AI?

by Chirag Shah December 15, 2024 0

AI is playing an increasingly larger part in our lives and the world around us. By some projections, we will have AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence, in less... Read more.

Editorial

What Is AI?

by Chirag Shah October 22, 2024 0

There are several ways to define Artificial Intelligence (AI), but the question is -- does it matter? This editorial argues that instead of getting lost in the definitional... Read more.