Sachita Nishal
PhD Candidate, Northwestern University
Hi, I'm Sachita! I'm a 4th-year PhD candidate at Northwestern University, advised by Dr. Nick Diakopoulos. My research lies at the intersection of HCI, AI, and science communication, exploring how socio-technical systems for news production can support journalistic work while upholding social and professional values.
Specifically, I focus on: 1) designing and evaluating value-senstive, AI-infused systems to support journalist's processes of information discovery, sense-making, and writing, and 2) examining technology's broader impacts on the news and information ecosystem.
I've presented my work at HCI and AI conferences (CSCW, CHI, DIS, FAccT, IC2S2) and journalism events (Big Local News, SRCCON).
You can email me at: nishal [at] u.northwestern.edu
News and Updates
July 2024: My first news publication! Nieman Lab republished my article on our prototype tool that uses GPT-4 and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to simplify scientific jargon for journalists. Thoughts welcome!
June 2024: Thrilled to begin my internship with Microsoft Research's FATE group in NYC! Under the mentorship of Dr. Jenn Wortman Vaughan, I'll be exploring how to enhance control and transparency in generative AI tools for journalists, to support their professional goals and values.
May 2024: I delivered a lightning talk about different dimensions along which we need to evaluate AI systems in the newsroom, at Aspen Digital's event on AI and News hosted by the Ford Foundation! You can find my slides here, and I'd love to know what you think!
April 2024: Our CSCW paper on identifying shifts in practices with AI tools in the newsroom is finally out in open-access! Here's the link -- please tell us what you think!
Recent Blog Posts
Talk + Responses: Blueprints for Evaluating AI in Journalism —
Notes on my recent talk and related conversations at Aspen Digital's AI & News event.
Talk + Responses: Gender Biases in LLM Narratives —
Notes on my recent talk and related conversations at Big Local News' annual Story Discovery at Scale conference.
19 Mar 2024: Where the Month Went —
Sortings Things Out, The Algorithm, and Bullshit Jobs