Stephen Yang | Researching Digital Futures With and Beyond AI

I'm Stephen Yang, a sociotechnical researcher of the temporal and material politics of media technologies. I dream of liberatory futures of cultural connections with and beyond AI.

Presently, I'm pursuing my PhD at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California, where I'm supported by the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP).

My research works toward anticipatory foresight to guide the responsible innovation and governance of nascent technologies like generative AI. I frequently hold research appointments outside of academia, including Microsoft Research (Social Media Collective), Center for Democracy & Technology (AI Governance Lab), and Partnership on AI.

I'm always open to new connections and opportunities. You can find me on X (formerly Twitter) or reach out to me at stepheny [at] usc [dot] edu.

I study the temporal and material politics of media technologies. Specifically, my research scrutinizes the ongoing interplay between future imaginaries and technology design that reifies contemporary digital culture. I trace how disparate visions of the speed, timeliness, and rhythms of public life shape — and are shaped by — the material (re)configurations of computational media. From social media platforms, audiovisual production tools, to generative AI, I ruminate on how they came to be — and what they could become. I do so through a critical appraisal of the systems of power that continue to undergird our communication landscape.

More broadly, I examine the continuities and ruptures as emerging media technologies reanimate — and disrupt — the grand narrative of acceleration. To this end, I study how visions of accelerated futures — that the world ought to be speeding up with the advent of networked communication — are simultaneously maintained and contested through their contradictions. Against acceleration, I ruminate on the expressive and communal potentials of emerging media technologies. I dream of liberatory futures of cultural connections, owing much to feminist, queer, and Afrofuturist musings.

My research integrates theories from sociology, science and technology studies (STS), human-computer interaction (HCI), and media studies. Methodologically, I draw on genealogical, interpretive, ethnographic, and design-futuring approaches.

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I hold a B.S. in Communication and Information Science from Cornell University, where I graduated as the Degree Marshal of the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, a Merrill Presidential Scholar, and a Rawlings Presidential Research Scholar.

Outside of academia, I have worked in journalism and advertising at organizations such as the Taipei Times and Wunderman Thompson.

2024

Summer' 24 — This summer, I'm interning at the Center for Democracy & Technology, where I work on policy research as part of the AI Governance Lab! As I spend my summer in Washington, D.C., I'm also participating in the Consortium on Media Policy Studies (COMPASS).

June 2024 — I presented a paper at the annual conference of the International Communication Association (ICA)! As part of a panel on genAI and cultural production, I discussed news media's projected futures of generative AI amidst the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
Jan 2024 — I just presented our EAAMO'23 paper on participatory approaches to AI design (co-authored with Fernando Delgado, Michael Madaio, and Qian Yang) for Data & Society's series on participatory methods series on AI design and accountability!

2023

Oct 2023 — I presented a paper on participatory approaches to AI design that I co-authored with Fernando Delgado, Michael Madaio, and Qian Yang during the third ACM conference on Equity and Access in Algorithms, Mechanisms, and Optimization (EAAMO'23) in Boston!
Oct 2023 — I presented a paper on the platformized rhythms of underground electronic/dance music during the 2023 conference of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in Philadelphia. So great to catch up with my lovely friends!
April 2023 — I've accepted the offer to join the Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California to pursue my PhD !
March 2023 — I was awarded the National Science Foundation's Graduate Research Fellowship! The fellowship includes three years of financial support that totaled to $147,000 for my doctoral study. I'm over the moon!
January 2023 — Our paper on leveraging biomedical literature to calibrate trust in AI-powered clinical decision-support systems is accepted to the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI'23)!

2022

November 2022 — I just presented my project, "“Secrecy as Self-Making: Mobile Media Tactics in Underground Electronic/Dance Music Scenes," at the 23rd annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) in Dublin!
September 2022 — I published an article that synthesizes the social, economic, and organizational logic of content creation on the Social Media Collective blog!
May 2022 — I started my internship at Microsoft Research New England this summer! I'm working with Nancy Baym, Mary Gray, and Tarleton Gillespie at the Social Media Collective.
May 2022 — I graduated summa cum laude from Cornell University as the inaugural Degree Marshal for the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science!

I'm a queer person of color who was born and raised outside of the United States. As someone who have affiliations with elite institutions, I often sit in between marginality and privilege. To put my commitment to diversity and inclusion in practice, I actively seek ways to reduce barriers to success for those coming from marginalized backgrounds. This often translates to sharing tacit knowledge I acquired from prior experience and from my position of privilege.

Are you a marginalized person contemplating a career in research or responsible AI? Send me an email with any questions you may have at stepheny[at] usc [dot] edu.