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Alexandra Olteanu

@aolteanu

Ethical/Responsible AI. Rigor in AI. Grumpy eastern european in north america. Lovingly nitpicky.

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07.11.2024
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Latest posts by Alexandra Olteanu @aolteanu

thank you for this Alexander ♥️ I am happy we got to work together!

04.03.2026 19:02 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

thank you for the kind words Angela!

04.03.2026 19:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

If you want to chat about anything from research, impact, etc please do reach out!

I will also soon likely start looking for short term sabbatical/visiting-like opportunities; so if you know of any such opportunities please do reach out as well.

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 8 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

It will take a minute for me to grieve and rest. I think it might also be the time for me to update my personal website, which has remained frozen in the summer of 2018.

In the next period I am also hoping to gain some perspective, and have chats with folks.

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Dehumanizing machines: Making sense of AI systems that seem human
Dehumanizing machines: Making sense of AI systems that seem human YouTube video by Microsoft Research

... early work on foreseeing adverse impacts and performing impact assessments, and so much more. If you work on anything related to these topics you have likely read some of our work. This short video offers an overview of our more recent work on anthropomorphic AI systems: youtu.be/ZnLFDKX0KME?...

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

... early work on evaluating text generation systems (e.g., autocomplete, smartreply) and understanding the ways in which such systems can fail (aka red teaming), early work on evaluating the quality of benchmarks and foregrounding critical construct validity issues, ...

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

This includes some of the earliest work showcasing how a lack of conceptual clarity about the constructs under use when evaluating, building, or deploying AI systems hinders our ability to reliably operationalize or measure those constructs, ...

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I also had the fortune to work with some of the most wonderful students and colleagues, and our little team has done so much rigorous, foundational work over the last 7+ years.

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I joined as one of the first hires on the FATE Montreal team. When I found myself in the position of rebuilding the team a few years later, I poured my soul into doing so; this team has meant enormously to me.I am immensely proud of the work we've done over the years & of the impact our work has had

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Yesterday was my last day at MSR. We recently learned that our roles were eliminated, and with them our little FATE Montreal team.

I joined MSR a bit over 7.5 years ago while on active chemotherapy, and being at MSR has overlapped with so much change in my life.

03.03.2026 19:49 👍 32 🔁 6 💬 4 📌 0

The deadline for the 2026 FAccT DC is next Tuesday, February 24! If you are a student working on topics relevant to the FAccT's scope, this is an opportunity to interact with a diverse set of peers and mentors! #facct2026 #facct26 #facct

Details here: facctconference.org/2026/callfor...

18.02.2026 14:52 👍 7 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 0

The deadline for the 2026 FAccT DC is next Tuesday, February 24! If you are a student working on topics relevant to the FAccT's scope, this is an opportunity to interact with a diverse set of peers and mentors! #facct2026 #facct26 #facct

Details here: facctconference.org/2026/callfor...

18.02.2026 14:52 👍 7 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 0

We are hoping to see applications from and bring together a diverse group of students across multiple disciplinary areas! If you are a graduate student and interested in FAccT’s scope, the Doctoral Colloquium is for you! #facct2026 #facct26

21.01.2026 20:05 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 1

📣 It's again that time of the year 🤩 - our internship call for the FATE team @ MSR Montreal and our collaborators is now up! 🎉🎉

We are broadly looking for candidates interested in perceptions, evaluation, uses, and impacts of AI!

#FAccT #FAccT2025 #CHI2025 #NeurIPS2025 #ACL2025

05.12.2025 20:52 👍 25 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 0

Interested in any of these areas? Apply here:
apply.careers.microsoft.com/careers/job/...

05.12.2025 20:52 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

If you are interested in conceptual clarity, construct validity, benchmarks, and/or anthropomorphic AI behavior, design, or impacts you should consider applying! 🤩 If you are interested in consent and ownership frameworks for AI artifacts, I would really love to talk to you! 😍

05.12.2025 20:52 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

📣 It's again that time of the year 🤩 - our internship call for the FATE team @ MSR Montreal and our collaborators is now up! 🎉🎉

We are broadly looking for candidates interested in perceptions, evaluation, uses, and impacts of AI!

#FAccT #FAccT2025 #CHI2025 #NeurIPS2025 #ACL2025

05.12.2025 20:52 👍 25 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 0
Post image Post image

@zey.bsky.social's paper and talk at ICWSM'14 (my first ICWSM!) shaped my thinking on issues around data/technology and the type of problems I still spend my time working on/thinking about. Can't think of a better keynote speaker for my first NeurIPS.

03.12.2025 23:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
Screenshot of the first page of the paper titled "rigor in ai: doing rigorous AI work requires a broader, responsible AI-informed conception of rigor"

Screenshot of the first page of the paper titled "rigor in ai: doing rigorous AI work requires a broader, responsible AI-informed conception of rigor"

On my way to
@neuripsconf.bsky.social -- this is my first time at #NeurIPS and looking forward to seeing folks and presenting our paper on Rigor in AI. Do find me if you want to chat about rigor in AI, anthropomorphic AI, or evaluations #NeurIPS2025

01.12.2025 11:50 👍 16 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
A staircase in the new School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences building at Wisconsin Madison. Tan wood structures surround tapestry art and a small indoor garden.

A staircase in the new School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences building at Wisconsin Madison. Tan wood structures surround tapestry art and a small indoor garden.

A view from above of the staircases in the Wisconsin CDIS building

A view from above of the staircases in the Wisconsin CDIS building

An shot from below of winding wooden staircases and a glass atrium rooftop. The new School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences building at Wisconsin Madison.

An shot from below of winding wooden staircases and a glass atrium rooftop. The new School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences building at Wisconsin Madison.

A bicolor white cat with seal-colored markings, looking upwards with big wide dark eyes.

A bicolor white cat with seal-colored markings, looking upwards with big wide dark eyes.

It's the season for PhD apps!! 🥧 🦃 ☃️ ❄️

Apply to Wisconsin CS to research
- Societal impact of AI
- NLP ←→ CSS and cultural analytics
- Computational sociolinguistics
- Human-AI interaction
- Culturally competent and inclusive NLP
with me!

lucy3.github.io/prospective-...

11.11.2025 22:32 👍 51 🔁 16 💬 1 📌 1
Snow on the balcony

Snow on the balcony

Unexpected (amount of) snow day

11.11.2025 04:42 👍 9 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
Preview
Rigor in AI: Doing Rigorous AI Work Requires a Broader, Responsible AI-Informed Conception of Rigor In AI research and practice, rigor remains largely understood in terms of methodological rigor -- such as whether mathematical, statistical, or computational methods are correctly applied. We argue th...

Our forthcoming NeurIPS position paper, led by @aolteanu.bsky.social, makes this argument (along with several related ones) in more depth. Rigorous AI/ML work should flow from explicit and rigorous premises, not just have a final evaluation that checks some rigor boxes. arxiv.org/abs/2506.14652

07.11.2025 12:19 👍 5 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

I wish folks would use more precise terminology than "AI sycophancy." Not all validating behaviours/interactions are sycophantic. By definition, for them to be sycophantic there needs to be an underlying intention to e.g., gain advantage or favour. Intention is something AI systems do not have.

18.10.2025 01:44 👍 12 🔁 0 💬 3 📌 0

Love this analogy

01.10.2025 22:23 👍 29 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0

Perhaps not as much about how real is or is not, but this is a paper that substantially shaped my views on this topic (I have also been surprised at times about how different folks' conceptualizations of reproducibility can be) cs.uwaterloo.ca/~brecht/cour...

30.09.2025 18:21 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

As we prepare the camera-ready version of this paper, I am also reflecting on how to make this work handier and more useful: rigor cards to make the different facets of rigor easier to grasp? workshops to provide a forum for discussion and debates? something else that would be helpful to you?

29.09.2025 23:13 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

This was accepted to #NeurIPS 🎉🎊

TL;DR Impoverished notions of rigor can have a formative impact on AI work. We argue for a broader conception of what rigorous work should entail & go beyond methodological issues to include epistemic, normative, conceptual, reporting & interpretative considerations

29.09.2025 23:13 👍 25 🔁 8 💬 1 📌 1
Preview
Rigor in AI: Doing Rigorous AI Work Requires a Broader, Responsible AI-Informed Conception of Rigor In AI research and practice, rigor remains largely understood in terms of methodological rigor -- such as whether mathematical, statistical, or computational methods are correctly applied. We argue th...

"Epistemic rigor, however, does not necessarily require specific epistemological commitments or choices but rather that those commitments and choices be made explicit."

www.arxiv.org/abs/2506.14652

12.09.2025 14:09 👍 8 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0

Not sure if it has what you need or if they are still collecting but this might be worth checking out archive.org/details/twit...

31.07.2025 14:41 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Listening to a workshop panel at #acl2025 I am realizing that we are saying more or less the same things and having more or less the same conversations for so many years

31.07.2025 11:52 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0