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Sachita Nishal

@sachnishal.bsky.social

HCI PhD @ Northwestern. I design human-centered AI tool to support science communication + study how AI tools might reshape people’s values, practices, relationships. she/her. nishalsach.github.io

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Sachita Nishal@sachnishal.bsky.social · last mo.

We will be in the Grand Hall at the poster session talking about this work from 3.20pm-4.20pm today! Come talk to us to learn about fun tropes and not-so-fun implicit biases! #ACL2026

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Sachita Nishal@sachnishal.bsky.social · last mo.

@jackbandy.com and I are presenting new work on gender bias in story generation at the EvalEval workshop @ #ACL2026! We know tropes in film and TV are often implicitly gendered, i.e., nothing in the trope's description marks it as gendered, but one gender is overrepresented in creative depictions.

National Trust@nationaltrust.org.uk · 3mo ago

We have an *extremely* important announcement to make. From Wednesday, we will be launching our puffin live cam, coming to you from the Farne Islands. So you can watch puffins all day long. In celebration, please enjoy this clip of puffins being really busy for 39 seconds straight.

Dr Abeba Birhane@abeba.blacksky.app · 3mo ago

been thinking a lot about this 1972 Weizenbaum paper a lot lately, especially when i hear people say things like access to llms reduce inequality by leveling the playing field, solve the mental health crisis & the loneliness pandemic, etc, all of which are problems rooted in very technology itself

a screenshot reads: The structure of the typical essay on "The impact of computers on so- ciety" is as follows: First there is an "on the one hand" statement. It tells all the good things oomputers have already done for society and often even attempts to argue that the social order would already have collapsed were it not for the "computer revolution." This is usually followed by an "on the other hand" caution which tells of cer- tain problems the introduction of com- puters brings in its wake. The threat posed to individual privacy by large data banks and the danger of large- scale unemployment induced by indus- trial automation are usually mentioned. Finally, the glorious present and pro- spective achievements of the computer are applauded, while the *dangers al- luded to in the second part are shown to be capable of being alleviated by sophisticated technological fixes. The closing paragraph consists of a plea for generous societal support for more, and more large-scale, computer re- search and development. This is usually coupled to the more or less subtle assertion that only computer science, hence only the computer sci- entist, can guard the world against the admittedly hazardous fallout of applied computer technology. In fact, the computer has had very considerably less societal impact than the mass media would lead us to be- lieve. Certainly, there are enterprises like space travel that could not have been undertaken without computers. Certainly the computer industry, and with it the computer education indus- try, has grown to enormous propor- tions. But much of the industry is self-serving. It is rather like an island economy in which the natives make a living by talking in each other's laundry. The part that is not self-serving is
Sachita Nishal@sachnishal.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Attending #CHI2026 in Barcelona? Do you study news and online information ecosystems in HCI? Come hang out with us at lunch! @mariannealq.bsky.social and I are hosting a meetup for folks in this research space on April 13 (Mon), 1-2.30pm! Please RSVP by April 11 (Sat): forms.gle/aKmy3pv47S5M...

HCI + News Lunch @ CHI 2026

Hello! We're excited to bring together researchers and designers working at the intersection of HCI and news / information ecosystems, who will be at CHI 2026. It's a chance to meet others in the comm...

forms.gle

Lizzie K.@lizz-iek.bsky.social · 5mo ago

the point of doing this as a phd student is not just to summarize stuff and make a knowledge map. it is actually primarily to identify your allies, foes, rivals, and to decide who you want to start beef with

BREAKING: Claude can now research like a Stanford PhD student. Here are 9 insane Claude prompts that turn 40+ research papers into structured literature reviews, knowledge maps, and research gaps in minutes (Save this)
Kashif Imteyaz@kashifimteyaz.bsky.social · 6mo ago

📣New paper ! Designing collaborative generative AI is difficult precisely because most generative AI systems are built around efficiency, speed, and individual productivity. In our conditionally accepted #CHI26 paper, we ask: what happens when those assumptions break down?

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Nick Seaver@nickseaver.website · 6mo ago

nice concretizing of the core idea in the history of information overload: overload isn’t a matter of quantity alone, it requires a certain kind of subject to feel overwhelmed. (the early modern scholar who wants to have read every book in the library, the RSS reader who wants inbox zero)

Elliot Jay Stocks@elliotjaystocks.bsky.social · 6mo ago

I love this thoughtful and beautifully presented piece by @terry.social.godier.me.ap.brid.gy (found via @tyfromtheinternet.com’s newsletter), on the anxiety of unread counts and the questionable evolution of app design. “Phantom obligation — the guilt you feel for something no one asked you to do.”

Duri Long@duri-long.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Excited to announce the publication of our article "AI Unplugged: Exploring Pathways from Physical Simulation to Conceptualization of AI Reasoning Processes" in @acmtoce.bsky.social. We present 4 activities and explore how they support conceptualization of AI reasoning. dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

AI Unplugged: Exploring Pathways from Physical Simulation to Conceptualization of AI Reasoning Processes | ACM Transactions on Computing Education

Young adolescents interact with AI daily, but there is a lack of approachable, concrete opportunities for them to develop an understanding of AI reasoning processes. We leverage theories of embodied l...

dl.acm.org

Aman Bhargava@aman.bh · 8mo ago

> We archived around 86M music files, representing around 99.6% of listens. It’s a little under 300TB. This is the largest music metadata database that is publicly available. Many interesting 📊 charts on this page that can only be made by having this scale of data. annas-archive.li/blog/backing...

Chart showing that 70% of songs are ones almost no one ever listens to (stream count < 1000).A chart titled "Stream Count Analysis by Popularity" showing a histogram of total streams peaking at popularity scores of 60–70, overlaid with a line graph showing average streams per song spiking exponentially at scores of 90–100. Below, a table lists the top three songs by stream count: "Die With A Smile," "BIRDS OF A FEATHER," and "DtMF."A matrix grid with the title "Audio Features Correlation Heatmaps" showing histograms of musical traits (Tempo, Energy, Valence, etc.) along the diagonal and 2D density heatmaps showing correlations between paired features in the intersecting cells.
Cat Manning@catacalypto.bsky.social · 8mo ago

another example of AI as tracer dye, exposing an already existing problem (and, of course, significantly worsening it)

Ryan Cordell@ryancordell.org · 8mo ago

I think this post nails the actual problem, for researchers at least—AI hallucinations would simply not be a problem in academic work if we’d not normalized citation-as-signaling rather than actual engagement—you can only cite a fake paper if you’re not in the habit of reading the papers you cite

Ryan Cordell@ryancordell.org · 8mo ago

that doesn’t solve the issue of students, journalists, etc. finding and citing fake academic papers, of course—but truly, it’s not an LLM’s fault when professional scholars do this—they are just efficient catalysts for a chemical reaction already underway

Julien Chaumond@julien-c.hf.co · 9mo ago

Training LLMs end to end is hard. But way more people should, and will, be doing it in the future. The @hf.co Research team is excited to share their new e-book that covers the full pipeline: · pre-training, · post-training, · infra. 200+ pages of what worked and what didn’t. ⤵️

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Sachita Nishal@sachnishal.bsky.social · 10mo ago

📣 Attention science + tech journalists! Trying to keep up with the flood of research papers that come out every day? Attempting to track what research has already been covered by others, and what may benefit from deeper exploration? You are invited to participate in our research study! [1/3]

A rectangular Northwestern University flyer titled “Call for Study Participants.” The top banner is pink with bold black text reading “CALL FOR STUDY PARTICIPANTS.” Below it, highlighted in yellow, is the question: “Are you a journalist writing about technology and/or computing?” The flyer explains that researchers at Northwestern University are seeking professional journalists who cover technology or related topics, write news in English, and are based in the U.S. to participate in an online study. The study involves using a tool for two weeks, providing feedback, and receiving $100 compensation (IRB Study #STU00224608). It includes a yellow box that says “Fill out our eligibility form if you’re interested!” with the link https://tinyurl.com/newscompass and contact emails: Nick Diakopoulos (nad@northwestern.edu) and Sachita Nishal (nishal@u.northwestern.edu). The Northwestern University seal appears in the top-right corner.
Sachita Nishal@sachnishal.bsky.social · 10mo ago

📣 Attention science + tech journalists! Trying to keep up with the flood of research papers that come out every day? Attempting to track what research has already been covered by others, and what may benefit from deeper exploration? You are invited to participate in our research study! [1/3]

A rectangular Northwestern University flyer titled “Call for Study Participants.” The top banner is pink with bold black text reading “CALL FOR STUDY PARTICIPANTS.” Below it, highlighted in yellow, is the question: “Are you a journalist writing about technology and/or computing?” The flyer explains that researchers at Northwestern University are seeking professional journalists who cover technology or related topics, write news in English, and are based in the U.S. to participate in an online study. The study involves using a tool for two weeks, providing feedback, and receiving $100 compensation (IRB Study #STU00224608). It includes a yellow box that says “Fill out our eligibility form if you’re interested!” with the link https://tinyurl.com/newscompass and contact emails: Nick Diakopoulos (nad@northwestern.edu) and Sachita Nishal (nishal@u.northwestern.edu). The Northwestern University seal appears in the top-right corner.