I lead the Social Algorithms Group, where we study and build sociotechnical systems. My vision is to build computer-mediated communication infrastructures that are productive, accountable, and safe—infrastructures that help people to understand and navigate the algorithmic systems shaping their daily lives. As these systems grow increasingly opaque, people deserve more than passive participation. They deserve awareness of how algorithms curate their reality, literacy to develop meaningful mental models, and autonomy to make informed choices. Through interdisciplinary research spanning design, law, economics, sociology, and computer science, I aim to create tools and methods that reveal the invisible mechanisms of algorithmic power and restore human agency in an age of AI.

One approach is the algorithm audit—a rigorous methodology for interrogating opaque systems and establishing credible assurance that they operate as intended and without harm. My work has shown that awareness transforms people's relationship with technology: when participants discovered algorithmic curation in their feeds, initial outrage gave way to power as they learned to "manipulate the manipulation." I envision expanding auditing practices into everyday behavior, making them as routine as checking nutritional labels, while developing governance frameworks that align with both community norms and the law.

Our new book, Auditing AI, released in April 2026, covers our auditing approaches and the lawsuit that helped redefine hacking law so that audits are not a federal crime.

Selected Papers

A more comprehensive list may be found on Google Scholar.

• A. Karan, N. Vincent, K. Karahalios, H. Sundaram. "Algorithmic Collective Action with Two Collectives." ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT). 2025.
• Ali Zaidi and Karrie Karahalios. From Sociotechnical Gaps to Solutions: Designing AI Tools with Parents to Address Special Education Advocacy Barriers in IEP Processes. e ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) Conference. 2025.
• Alex Atcheson, Omar Khan, Brian Siemann, Anika Jain, Karrie Karahalios. "'I'd Never Actually Realized How Big An Impact It Had Until Now': Perspectives of University Students with Disabilities on Generative Artificial Intelligence." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025.
• Silas Hsu, Vinay Koshy, Kristen Vaccaro, Christian Sandvig, Karrie Karahalios. "Placebo Effect of Control Settings in Feeds Are Not Always Strong." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2025.
• Vinay Koshy, Alex Atcheson, Karrie Karahalios. "Not What it Used to Be: Characterizing Content and User-base Changes in Newly Created Online Communities." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2024.
• Vinay Koshy, Tanvi Bajpai, Eshwar Chandrasekharan, Hari Sundaram, Karrie Karahalios. "Measuring User-Moderator Alignment on r/ChangeMyView." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, CSCW, 2023. Best Paper (Top 1% of Submissions).
• Ziang Xiao, Tiffany Wenting Li, Karrie Karahalios, and Hari Sundaram. "Inform the Uninformed: Improving Online Informed Consent Reading with an AI-Powered Chatbot." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2023.
• Tiffany Wenting Li and Silas Hsu (co-first authors), Max Fowler, Zhilin Zhang, Craig Zilles, and Karrie Karahalios. "Am I Wrong, or is the Autograder Wrong? Effects of AI Grading Mistakes and Error Rate Perception on Learning." ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER), 2023.
• Sanorita Dey, Brittany R.L. Duff, Karrie Karahalios. "Re-imagining the Power of Priming and Framing Effects in the Context of Political Crowdfunding Campaigns." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2022.
• Kristen Vaccaro, Ziang Xiao, Kevin Hamilton, Karrie Karahalios. "Contestability For Content Moderation." Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, CSCW, 2021.
• Danaë Metaxa, Joon Sung Park, Ronald E. Robertson, Karrie Karahalios, Christo Wilson, Jeff Hancock and Christian Sandvig. "Auditing Algorithms: Understanding Algorithmic Systems from the Outside In." Foundations and Trends in Human–Computer Interaction: Vol. 14: No. 4, 2021, pp 272-344.
• Doris Jung-Lin Lee, Vidya Setlur, Melanie Tory, Karrie Karahalios, Aditya Parameswaran. "Deconstructing Categorization in Visualization Recommendation: A Taxonomy and Comparative Study." IEEE International Conference on Information Visualization (InfoVis), October 2021.
• Silas Hsu, Tiffany Wenting Li, Zhilin Zhang, Max Fowler, Craig Zilles, Karrie Karahalios. "Attitudes Surrounding an Imperfect AI Autograder." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021.
• Vinay Koshy, Joon Sung Park, Ti-Chung Cheng, Karrie Karahalios. "'We Just Use What ey Give Us': Understanding Passenger User Perspectives in Smart Homes." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2021. Honorable Mention (Top 5% of Submissions).
• Silas Hsu, Kristen Vaccaro, Yue Yin, Aimee Rickman, Karrie Karahalios. "Awareness, Navigation, and Use of Feed Control Settings Online." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2020.
• Sijia Xiao, Danaë Metaxa, Joon Sung Park, Karrie Karahalios, Niloufar Salehi. "Random, Messy, Funny, Raw: Finstas as Intimate Reconfigurations of Social Media." Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI), 2020.
• Joshua Asplund, Motahhare Eslami, Hari Sudaram, Christian Sandvig, Karrie Karahalios. "Auditing Race and Gender Discrimination in Online Housing Markets." International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media (ICWSM), 2020.