This episode is part of our series AI at Illinois, where we delve into the impacts of artificial intelligence technologies on graduate students' research, teaching, and thinking.

Bri Lafond (Writing Studies doctoral candidate and Graduate College Career Exploration Fellow) sits down with Clara Belitz (School of Information Sciences) and Ali Zaidi (Computer Science) for a dynamic conversation about how generative AI has the potential to affect a lot of different aspects of our day-to-day lives.  

Check out the complete GradLIFE Podcast on Buzzsprout or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Want to read more of our AI @ Illinois series? Check it out on our GradLIFE blog!

Clara Belitz is a doctoral student in information science at the School of Information Sciences. Her research focuses on algorithmic justice, and she works to integrate social and technical approaches to issues of equity and computing. She's broadly interested in AI ethics and how we incorporate social identity into predictive systems and the knowledge assumptions of computing. She researches with both the (Human + Machine) Learning lab and the Community Data Clinic.

Ali Zaidi is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Computer Science working with professors Karrie Karahalios and Ranjitha Kumar. His current research focuses on uncovering tensions between clinical personnel and artificial intelligence, as well as how to better integrate AI-based tools into their clinical decision-making workflows. Previously, he's worked on user-centric evaluations of smart home routine software, and data-driven design of user interfaces.