As artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly embedded in health, caregiving, and other socially sensitive domains, evaluating their impact requires more than assessing technical performance. Ryu's research approaches AI as a sociotechnical system, asking not just how these systems function, but when and why they should be used, and how they reflect or challenge social expectations, cultural norms, and power dynamics.

In this talk, Ryu will present a program of research grounded in participatory and value-sensitive approaches to building AI for society with society. Drawing on studies of creating safe online spaces for people facing stigma, co-designing with patients, caregivers, and providers, and evaluating AI systems used in caregiving and mental health contexts, Ryu investigates how lived experiences and social roles shape people’s expectations of care, responsibility, and trust in AI systems. Across these projects, Ryu examines how harms such as stigma, exclusion, and misplaced burden arise not only from what AI produces or omits, but from broader design decisions about who participates, whose values are prioritized, and how support is defined.

Ryu highlights research on culturally responsive design, value-based and collaborative decision-making, and ethical evaluation of generative AI in vulnerable settings. Ryu concludes with a future agenda focused on human–AI teaming in caregiving, inclusive decision support, and frameworks that embed accountability and care into the design and evaluation of AI systems.

Hyeyoung Ryu is a postdoctoral research fellow at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, conducting research at the intersection of human-centered artificial intelligence (AI), health informatics, and participatory design. She earned her PhD in Information Science from the University of Washington. Her work examines how AI systems are embedded in health, caregiving, and other socially competent contexts, with a focus on the ways social expectations, values, and norms shape the design, evaluation, and experience of technologies.

Guided by participatory and value-sensitive approaches, Ryu collaborates with patients, caregivers, clinicians, and people facing stigma to examine what is seen as appropriate, responsible, or harmful in AI health technologies. Her projects span culturally responsive health support technologies, digital tools for value-based care, and ethical evaluations of conversational and AI systems used in vulnerable moments. She shows how assumptions about roles, care, and responsibility shape design and evaluation decisions, and how reciprocal and reflective research practices can support inclusive and accountable technologies.

Ryu has published in top venues across human-computer interaction and medical informatics research, including CHI, CSCW, JAMIA, and JMIR. Her work has received multiple recognitions, including Best Paper at JAMIA (2022) and an Honorable Mention at CHI (2023). Alongside empirical contributions, she has developed methodological and conceptual frameworks for participatory research, value elicitation, and evaluating AI in sensitive contexts.

Her research agenda centers on human-AI teaming in caregiving and clinical settings, culturally responsive and value-based AI interfaces, and community-engaged frameworks for governing and evaluating AI systems. Her scholarship is grounded in reciprocity and care, with a commitment to ensuring that participants’ contributions shape both research and real-world outcomes.