Cindy Lin | Searcharxiv

arXiv2026

Regimes of Scale in AI Meteorology

HCI work has explored the effective integration of AI/ML tools across "application domains" from healthcare to finance to transportation. We add to this literature with an analysis of AI/ML tools in meteorology, a domain that already uses "big data" and massive physics-based models. Drawing from 12 interviews with forecasters and meteorologists with varied connections to AI/ML weather modeling, we trace tensions in AI/ML weather application arising from what we call "regimes of scale," different ways that AI/ML and meteorological regimes make observations, data, and models scale. Rather than seeing AI/ML as a domain-agnostic tool, we argue that AI/ML methods were born from specific platform and internet infrastructures, and so they can struggle to integrate with very different (in this case meteorological) ways of organizing data pipelines.

cs.HC↗

arXiv2025

Dead Zone of Accountability: Why Social Claims in Machine Learning Research Should Be Articulated and Defended

Many Machine Learning research studies use language that describes potential social benefits or technical affordances of new methods and technologies. Such language, which we call "social claims", can help garner substantial resources and influence for those involved in ML research and technology production. However, there exists a gap between social claims and reality (the claim-reality gap): ML methods often fail to deliver the claimed functionality or social impacts. This paper investigates the claim-reality gap and makes a normative argument for developing accountability mechanisms for it. In making the argument, we make three contributions. First, we show why the symptom - absence of social claim accountability - is problematic. Second, we coin dead zone of accountability - a lens that scholars and practitioners can use to identify opportunities for new forms of accountability. We apply this lens to the claim-reality gap and provide a diagnosis by identifying cognitive and structural resistances to accountability in the claim-reality gap. Finally, we offer a prescription - two potential collaborative research agendas that can help create the condition for social claim accountability.

cs.CY↗