Refreshments are available starting at 10:45 a.m. The seminar will begin at 11 a.m.
Abstract
As AI increasingly permeates our daily lives, it brings immense benefits but also introduces critical privacy challenges, such as data misuse, surveillance, and loss of control. In this talk, Yaxing Yao will share his vision of an ecosystem where AI and privacy are not adversaries, but allies, and mutually reinforce and enrich one another. Rather than treating privacy as an obstacle, this ecosystem positions it as a foundational element of AI’s development, fostering a balanced environment that benefits both technology and society. Yao will introduce three fundamental relationships that drive this symbiotic ecosystem: 1) mutual benefit, wherein AI empowers users to understand and manage their data usage; 2) co-adaptation, wherein AI dynamically adapts to diverse privacy needs across contexts; and 3) ecosystem balance, wherein AI is properly anchored within regulatory frameworks and public policies to ensure users’ privacy. These three relationships redefine AI as a respectful partner in our digital lives—one that supports human-centered values and upholds our autonomy and privacy. Yao will discuss how his research contributes to the advancement of this ecosystem and how he expands its impact to privacy literacy development among families and children via community-based research efforts. Finally, he will discuss challenges and open questions in achieving this vision.
Speaker Biography
Yaxing Yao is an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. His research lies at the intersection of human-computer interaction, privacy, and accessibility, focusing on exploring privacy issues in user interactions with computing systems and developing solutions to empower users to be aware and control their privacy. He has published in top human-computer interaction venues (e.g., the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing) and privacy/security venues (e.g., the USENIX Security Symposium, the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security) and has received multiple paper awards, a Google PSS Faculty Research Award, and two Meta Research Awards. Yao’s work has influenced public policy, including the opt-out icon in the California Consumer Privacy Act. He also founded Kids’ Tech University, a program that engages K-12 students in privacy research through weekly design workshops and summer camps. Yao’s research is generously supported by the NSF, Google, and Meta.