I’m a CBI Postdoc Fellow at CMU studying AI ethics, critical AI, community mobilization, and 3D vision. My research uses audits, human subjects research, and critical analysis to predict and understand the impacts of AI on the world. To mitigate harms and broaden the benefits my work surfaces, I conduct research in partnership with policymakers, civil society, and impacted communities to identify and close gaps in knowledge blocking progress. Finally, I develop technical tools that can be used by broad audiences to mitigate AI harms. My work has been supported by grants from the Ford Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, UK AI Security Institute, Luminate Foundation, and CBI and NDSEG fellowships. Previously, I received my PhD from the University of Washington under Sidd Srinivasa.
My work has appeared in many news outlets including New York Times (2), The Washington Post, Nature (2), MIT Tech Review (2,3), Wired (2,3,4), 404Media.
I also run marathons, rock climb, backpack, read, and cook in my spare time.
CV Semantic Scholar Bluesky GitHub
Contact: wagnew[at]andrew[dot]cmu[dot]edu
For anything queer related, please contact me at william dot agnew at ostem dot org for privacy reasons.
I founded Queer in AI in 2018 to make the AI community more accepting of queer researchers and raise awareness of problems AI can cause for queer people
I chaired the first Queer in AI @ NeurIPS satellite workshop, featuring talks by queer AI researchers and a panel on AI ethics for the queer community. I helped organize the Queer in AI ICML 2019, NeurIPS 2019, and ICML 2020 workshops, in addition to many Queer in AI socials
I served on the Diversity and Inclusion Advisory Board for the NeurIPS 2018 D&I co-chairs, helping make NeurIPS more welcoming to queer people
I serve as the Vice President of External STEM Partnerships of oSTEM
I helped start UW CSE's queer prospectives reception at our prospective grad student visit days
Robotics competitions gave me the opportunity to learn many of the skills I use as a researcher. Giving students the same opportunities is incredibly meaningful (and fun!) for me.
I've volunteered in 25+ FLL, FTC, FRC, and BEST robotics competitions as a design judge, pit boss, or inspector
I've served on the planning committee of Georgia BEST
As an undergraduate at Georgia Tech, I helped start and lead the Undergraduate Research Ambassadors Program and the Big O Theoretical Computer Science Club, both of which have provided incredible opportunities, mentorship, and community for countless undergrads interested in research. I also proposed and organized the first Home Depot Deep Learning Competition which gives Georgia Tech students at a hands-on introduction to deep learning each year.
Mentoring brilliant students is one of the most impactful and meaningful things I do. If you are interested in working with me, please email me your resume and 2-3 paragraphs describing your interests.
Zhichao Lei
John Barcellos
Jize Cao
Christopher Kang
Ryan Pachauri
Jaclyn Brockschmidt
Caelen Wang
Andrew Lacheur
Yifan Wu
Ezra Awumey
Rachel Hong
Arjun Subramonian
Shivani Kapania
Harry Jiang
Carter Buckner
Anaelia Ovalle
Jacob Logas
Yuxi Wu