Date of Award
Summer 8-15-2022
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Degree Type
Dissertation
Abstract
Machine learning is increasingly engaged in a large number of important daily decisions and has great potential to reshape various sectors of our modern society. To fully realize this potential, it is important to understand the role that humans play in the design of machine learning algorithms and investigate the impacts of the algorithm on humans.
Towards the understanding of such interactions between humans and algorithms, this dissertation takes a human-centric perspective and focuses on investigating the interplay between human behavior and algorithm design. Accounting for the roles of humans in algorithm design creates unique challenges. For example, humans might be strategic or exhibit behavioral biases when generating data or responding to algorithms, violating the standard independence assumption in algorithm design. How do we design algorithms that take such human behavior into account? Moreover, humans possess various ethical values, e.g., humans want to be treated fairly and care about privacy. How do we design algorithms that align with human values? My dissertation addresses these challenges by combining both theoretical and empirical approaches. From the theoretical perspective, we explore how to design algorithms that account for human behavior and respect human values. In particular, we formulate models of human behavior in the data generation process and design algorithms that can leverage data with human biases. Moreover, we investigate the long-term impacts of algorithm decisions and design algorithms that mitigate the reinforcement of existing inequalities. From the empirical perspective, we have conducted behavioral experiments to understand human behavior in the context of data generation and information design. We have further developed more realistic human models based on empirical data and studied the algorithm design building on the updated behavior models.
Language
English (en)
Chair
Chien-Ju Ho
Committee Members
Yiling Chen, Brendan Juba, Yevgeniy Vorobeychik, William Yeoh,