Authors:
Elizabeth F. Churchill, Mikael Wiberg
Welcome to the March–April 2025 issue of Interactions. ACM has many conferences scheduled during these months for all aspects of computational science. For us, as HCI practitioners and scholars, CHI 2025 is the flagship conference. Besides seminars, research visits, and collaborations, CHI is the annual event where HCI researchers and practitioners come together and where discussions on ways to move forward together are sparked.
Interactions is also a place for us to share and debate the next evolution in technological infrastructures and technology interactions. Our cover story for this issue, "HCI for AGI," by Meredith Ringel Morris, focuses on something that has been top of mind for us for the past few years: the role of HCI in artificial general intelligence (AGI). Morris offers several main points, all focused on new ways to include research agendas for HCI and innovations in HCI/UX practice. She argues that we need new ways of thinking about existing HCI paradigms (interaction techniques, interface designs, and physical form factors) and also in our design processes, benchmarking methods, and data collection techniques. It is imperative that we update and innovate design and evaluation methods for the development of AGI systems and all areas where they may have an impact.
In "Salvage Anthropology and Low-Resource NLP: What Computer Science Should Learn from the Social Sciences," the Tech Labor forum article in this issue, David Gray Widder and Tamara Kneese use anthropology as an example discipline to problematize some notions of inclusion. Reflecting on the push to expand LLMs to encompass underrepresented languages, the authors urge us to consider potential harms and critically examine what may be unrealistic utopian narratives of inclusion. They argue that participation by marginalized groups isn't enough and ask us to consider instead on whose terms participation and consent are constructed, as well as to think about how communities can be "researchers in their own right, as they collect their own data and determine what the focus of the work should be?"
Another matter of deep concern that we highlight in this issue is the sustainability of the "AI revolution" in terms of the planetary costs of the computation needed to underpin it. Melissa Gregg, in her column "Carrying Capacity," shares some thoughts about whether this revolution of AI innovation is necessary and whether it will be or should be sustainable. She says that a focus on "the intersection of human and resource sustainability is existential for a tech industry determined to promote energy-intensive interaction modes as destiny."
We are excited to announce a new forum, More-Than-Human Design in Practice, led and curated by Anton Poikolainen Rosén and Sara Heitlinger. This forum explores more-than-human design practices that consider the interactions and interdependencies between humans and nonhuman others. Please read the introduction to the forum and consider submitting an article.
In our new(ish) section, Voices, we highlight those who are dedicated to doing the work quietly in the background and making the global HCI community stronger. Dani Kalarikalayil Raju is associate chair for community support on the SIGCHI Executive Committee and a cofounder of Studio Hasi, a startup working with nonprofit organizations and communities in India. Inspired by the sci-fi films he watched as a child, Dani reflects on what inspires him to spend so much time volunteering for all things HCI related.
Finally, Exit, curated by Renato Verdugo and Scott Minneman, reminds us that the expert curation of art and design exhibitions can change how people think about technology. Working with Corinna Gardner, senior curator of design and digital at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, they introduce the museum's Rapid Response Collecting program. It features objects that enter the museum's collection showcasing the now, standing in opposition to the classic stance of a museum that has typically focused on the past. The point of this collection is very much in line with our work as HCI, UI, and UX scholars and practitioners: "The designers of these seemingly everyday objects, whether consciously or not, shape how we live." Our design, evaluation, and advocacy work are shaped by the cultural, political, and technological contexts of our time, influencing everything we create, assess, and champion, or challenge.
For both those who are and who aren't attending CHI and other ACM conferences in the coming months, please consider submitting to Interactions. Your voice is important in influencing the future of our technological landscape, and it fuels discussions on ways of moving forward. Welcome to our spring issue!
Elizabeth F. Churchill and Mikael Wiberg
[email protected]
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The Digital Library is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. Copyright © 2025 ACM, Inc.
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