arXiv subjects

Claire Yang

Publications and source records attributed to Claire Yang.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Beyond One Output: Visualizing and Comparing Distributions of Language Model Generations

Users typically interact with and evaluate language models via single outputs, but each output is just one sample from a broad distribution of possible completions. This interaction hides distributional structure such as modes, uncommon edge cases, and sensitivity to small prompt changes, leading users to over-generalize from anecdotes when iterating on prompts for open-ended tasks. Informed by a formative study with researchers who use LMs (n=13) examining when stochasticity matters in practice, how they reason about distributions over language, and where current workflows break down, we introduce GROVE. GROVE is an interactive visualization that represents multiple LM generations as overlapping paths through a text graph, revealing shared structure, branching points, and clusters while preserving access to raw outputs. We evaluate across three crowdsourced user studies (N=47, 44, and 40 participants) targeting complementary distributional tasks. Our results support a hybrid workflow: graph summaries improve structural judgments such as assessing diversity, while direct output inspection remains stronger for detail-oriented questions.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2025

When Assisting One Disempowers Another

Personal AI agents are increasingly deployed in shared environments, where their actions affect not just the primary user they are assisting, but bystanders who never consented to being affected by the system. We show that a well-meaning AI assistant optimizing for one user's benefit can unintentionally erode a bystander's agency, a phenomenon we formalize as bystander disempowerment. We theoretically characterize the conditions under which disempowerment arises, showing it emerges when an assistant systematically selects actions that increase user empowerment at the bystander's expense. We empirically demonstrate this in Disempower-Grid, a parameterized suite of multi-agent gridworld environments, finding that between 27-96% of procedurally generated environments exhibit disempowerment, and that the presence of disempowerment depends strongly on assistant objective and capability, not just environmental structure.

cs.AI↗

arXiv2025

Preserving Sense of Agency: User Preferences for Robot Autonomy and User Control across Household Tasks

Roboticists often design with the assumption that assistive robots should be fully autonomous. However, it remains unclear whether users prefer highly autonomous robots, as prior work in assistive robotics suggests otherwise. High robot autonomy can reduce the user's sense of agency, which represents feeling in control of one's environment. How much control do users, in fact, want over the actions of robots used for in-home assistance? We investigate how robot autonomy levels affect users' sense of agency and the autonomy level they prefer in contexts with varying risks. Our study asked participants to rate their sense of agency as robot users across four distinct autonomy levels and ranked their robot preferences with respect to various household tasks. Our findings revealed that participants' sense of agency was primarily influenced by two factors: (1) whether the robot acts autonomously, and (2) whether a third party is involved in the robot's programming or operation. Notably, an end-user programmed robot highly preserved users' sense of agency, even though it acts autonomously. However, in high-risk settings, e.g., preparing a snack for a child with allergies, they preferred robots that prioritized their control significantly more. Additional contextual factors, such as trust in a third party operator, also shaped their preferences.

cs.RO↗