Communication Initialization Profile (CIP)
Specify
A 16-item profile that gives an LLM a starting point for how to communicate with someone before it has any history with them.
AI agents make many choices on people's behalf that people do not see. I make a person's intent explicit and shared with the agent, so people can:
Each system here has a demo you can try in the browser.
Specify
A 16-item profile that gives an LLM a starting point for how to communicate with someone before it has any history with them.
Specify and revise
Keeps a persistent profile of the user and uses it to repair short prompts, showing which words came from the prompt, the profile, or the AI.
Check and revise
Checks an LLM's plan against rules the user confirms, using model checking, and sends any violations back to the user and the LLM.
Check and revise
People state their own constraints in natural language and mark each one as hard or soft. Hard rules are checked with model checking, and soft preferences are rated by an LLM judge.
Specify
Collaborative LLM-powered agents that personalize for several people at once and resolve conflicting preferences among household members.
CHI 2025 Extended Abstracts
I have long been interested in how people and AI systems communicate: designing the foundation for it, and understanding how AI plays out in real settings.
A card-based design method that helps people co-design explanations of AI systems around their own needs.
DIS 2024
How workers' needs change as workplace AI takes on more agentic roles, and how authority and accountability can come apart.
HAI 2026, to appear
Co-creative activities supported by AI that bring grandparents and grandchildren together.
CHI 2025, Honorable Mention
An LLM-powered system that gives online learners personalized plans and adaptive support.
DIS 2026
My goal is to extend these mechanisms to embodied AI, as agents move into homes and shared spaces.
Revise
A household robot whose plan failed, because family members' requests conflicted or circumstances changed, repairs its plan and explains the repair.
DIS 2024
The same LLM as a robot, a voice agent, and a text agent: people favored the robot for connection and deliberation, but its fluent speech raised expectations it could not meet.
HRI 2024
How children's first interactions with a social robot unfold, and how turning its packaging into a character shaped their expectations.
CHI 2022, Honorable Mention HRI 2023 demo
A design space and guidelines for the screens robots use to share information.
HRI 2026
A review of how formal methods can help end users program robots, with the gaps that remain.
Foundations and Trends in Robotics, 2026