How this Stanford professor is trying to teach common sense to AI

Yejin Choi, a leading AI researcher and MacArthur Fellow, has joined Stanford HAI as a Senior Fellow and Professor of Computer Science, bringing her expertise in natural language processing and commonsense AI reasoning.

Background and expertise: Choi comes to Stanford from the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and University of Washington, where she established herself as a pioneer in AI commonsense reasoning and natural language processing.

• Her research focuses on teaching AI systems to understand implicit knowledge and unspoken rules about how the world works
• Choi’s groundbreaking work earned her a MacArthur Fellowship and recognition as one of the top researchers in her field
• Her previous roles included senior research manager at the Allen Institute for AI and associate professor at the University of Washington

Research priorities at Stanford HAI: At Stanford, Choi plans to advance several key areas of AI research while considering its human impact.

• She will explore pluralistic alignment in AI decision-making, moving beyond single “gold standard” answers to acknowledge multiple valid perspectives shaped by cultural norms
• A major focus will be developing smaller language models (SLMs) as alternatives to resource-intensive large language models
• Her work will continue to draw insights from cognitive neuroscience and philosophy while contributing back to these fields

Career journey and motivations: Choi’s path to AI research was shaped by early experiences and a willingness to tackle challenging, unpopular problems.

• Beginning her career as a Microsoft software developer, she later pursued AI research when the field was still emerging
• Growing up in South Korea, she faced gender-based discrimination that influenced her understanding of cultural norms and their impact
• She deliberately chose to work on commonsense AI despite skepticism from others in the field

Notable achievements: Choi’s research has produced significant advances across multiple areas of AI development.

• Created NLP models to detect fake product reviews by analyzing linguistic patterns
• Conducted pioneering research on racism and sexism in written text
• Advanced the field of commonsense reasoning in AI systems
• Received the MacArthur Fellowship for her groundbreaking work in commonsense AI

Future implications: Choi’s work at Stanford HAI positions her to address crucial challenges in AI development, particularly the need for more efficient, culturally aware systems that can reason with common sense. Her focus on smaller language models could democratize AI development beyond major tech companies, while her emphasis on pluralistic alignment suggests a more nuanced approach to AI decision-making that better reflects human complexity.