15 Search Results for "Raghavan, Manish"


Document
When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools

Authors: Charlotte Park, Kate Donahue, and Manish Raghavan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
Generative AI models differ from traditional machine learning tools in that they allow users to provide as much or as little information as they choose in their inputs. This flexibility often leads users to omit certain details, relying on the models to infer and fill in under-specified information based on distributional knowledge of user preferences. Such inferences may privilege majority viewpoints and disadvantage users with atypical preferences, raising concerns about fairness. Unlike more traditional recommender systems, LLMs can explicitly solicit more information from users through natural language. However, while directly eliciting user preferences could increase personalization and mitigate inequality, excessive querying places a burden on users who value efficiency. We develop a stylized model of user-LLM interaction and develop an objective that captures tradeoff between user burden and preference representation. Building on the observation that individual preferences are often correlated, we analyze how AI systems should balance inference and elicitation, characterizing the optimal amount of information to solicit before content generation. Ultimately, we show that information elicitation can mitigate the systematic biases of preference inference, enabling the design of generative tools that better incorporate diverse user perspectives while maintaining efficiency. We complement this theoretical analysis with an empirical evaluation illustrating the model’s predictions and exploring their practical implications.

Cite as

Charlotte Park, Kate Donahue, and Manish Raghavan. When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 7:1-7:25, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{park_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7,
  author =	{Park, Charlotte and Donahue, Kate and Raghavan, Manish},
  title =	{{When to Ask a Question: Understanding Communication Strategies in Generative AI Tools}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{7:1--7:25},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259782},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.7},
  annote =	{Keywords: human-AI interaction, user modeling, personalization}
}
Document
Serving Clients Fairly: On Facility Location and k-Median with Fair Outliers

Authors: Rajni Dabas, Samir Khuller, and Emilie Rivkin

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
Classical clustering problems such as Facility Location and k-Median aim to efficiently serve a set of clients from a subset of facilities - minimizing the total cost of facility openings and client assignments in Facility Location, and minimizing assignment (service) cost under a facility count constraint in k-Median. These problems are highly sensitive to outliers, and therefore researchers have studied variants that allow excluding a small number of clients as outliers to reduce cost. However, in many real-world settings, clients belong to different demographic or functional groups, and unconstrained outlier removal can disproportionately exclude certain groups, raising fairness concerns, especially when the facilities correspond to critically needed facilities for emergencies such as fire stations, hospitals and other emergency services. We study Facility Location with Fair Outliers, where each group is allowed a specified number of outliers, and the objective is to minimize total cost while respecting group-wise fairness constraints. We present a bicriteria approximation with a O(1/ε) approximation factor and (1+ 2ε) factor violation in outliers per group. For k-Median with Fair Outliers, we design a bicriteria approximation with a 4(1+ω/ε) approximation factor and (ω + ε) violation in outliers per group improving on prior work by avoiding dependence on k in outlier violations. We also prove that the problems are W[1]-hard parameterized by ω. We complement our algorithmic contributions with a detailed empirical analysis, demonstrating that fairness can be achieved with negligible increase in cost and that the integrality gap of the standard LP is small in practice.

Cite as

Rajni Dabas, Samir Khuller, and Emilie Rivkin. Serving Clients Fairly: On Facility Location and k-Median with Fair Outliers. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 9:1-9:19, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{dabas_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.9,
  author =	{Dabas, Rajni and Khuller, Samir and Rivkin, Emilie},
  title =	{{Serving Clients Fairly: On Facility Location and k-Median with Fair Outliers}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:19},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259812},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: Approximation algorithms, fairness}
}
Document
Inducing Efficient and Equitable Professional Networks Through Link Recommendations

Authors: Cynthia Dwork, Chris Hays, Lunjia Hu, Nicole Immorlica, and Juan Perdomo

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
Professional networks are a key determinant of individuals’ labor market outcomes. They may also play a role in either exacerbating or ameliorating inequality of opportunity across social groups. We initiate an investigation into the positive role that a professional networking platform can play when network members have different degrees of off-platform privilege. In a theoretical model, we show that the set of link recommendation policies that reduce costs between privileged and unprivileged individuals yield equilibria that are welfare-improving over all possible equilibria, compared to those obtained when not recommending links or recommending some smaller fraction of cross-group links. We next investigate the implications of platforms that do not intervene on the network formation process. We show that, absent intervention, inequality can increase relative to starting privilege levels even without exogenous in-group preferences, confirming and complementing existing theoretical literature. Increased inequality emerges from the differential leverage privileged and unprivileged individuals have in forming connections due to their asymmetric ex ante prospects. This is a formalization of a source of inequality in the labor market which has not been previously explored. These two findings reveal a stark reality: professional networking platforms that fail to foster integration in the link formation process risk reducing the platform’s utility to its users and exacerbating existing labor market inequality.

Cite as

Cynthia Dwork, Chris Hays, Lunjia Hu, Nicole Immorlica, and Juan Perdomo. Inducing Efficient and Equitable Professional Networks Through Link Recommendations. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 13:1-13:18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{dwork_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.13,
  author =	{Dwork, Cynthia and Hays, Chris and Hu, Lunjia and Immorlica, Nicole and Perdomo, Juan},
  title =	{{Inducing Efficient and Equitable Professional Networks Through Link Recommendations}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{13:1--13:18},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.13},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259863},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.13},
  annote =	{Keywords: Professional networks, Inequality, Link Recommendations}
}
Document
Fair Multi-Agent Persuasion with Submodular Constraints

Authors: Yannan Bai, Kamesh Munagala, Yiheng Shen, and Davidson Zhu

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 368, 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)


Abstract
We study the problem of selection in the context of Bayesian persuasion. We are given multiple agents with hidden values (or quality scores), to whom resources must be allocated by a welfare-maximizing decision-maker. An intermediary with knowledge of the agents' values seeks to influence the outcome of the selection by designing informative signals and providing tie-breaking policies, so that when the receiver maximizes welfare over the resulting posteriors, the expected utilities of the agents (where utility is defined as allocation times value) achieve certain fairness properties. The fairness measure we will use is majorization, which simultaneously approximately maximizes all symmetric, monotone, concave functions of the utilities. We consider the general setting where the allocation to the agents needs to respect arbitrary submodular constraints, as given by the corresponding polymatroid. We present a signaling policy that achieves a logarithmically approximate majorized policy in this setting, assuming the receiver is a (1+ε) approximate welfare maximizer. The approximation ratio is almost best possible, and that significantly outperforms generic results that only yield linear approximations. A key component of our result is a structural characterization showing that the vector of agent utilities for a given signaling policy defines the base polytope of a different polymatroid, a result that may be of independent interest. In addition, we show that an arbitrarily good additive approximation to this vector can be produced in (weakly) polynomial time via the multiplicative weights update method.

Cite as

Yannan Bai, Kamesh Munagala, Yiheng Shen, and Davidson Zhu. Fair Multi-Agent Persuasion with Submodular Constraints. In 7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 368, pp. 14:1-14:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{bai_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2026.14,
  author =	{Bai, Yannan and Munagala, Kamesh and Shen, Yiheng and Zhu, Davidson},
  title =	{{Fair Multi-Agent Persuasion with Submodular Constraints}},
  booktitle =	{7th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2026)},
  pages =	{14:1--14:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-419-2},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{368},
  editor =	{Lin, Huijia (Rachel)},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.14},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-259872},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2026.14},
  annote =	{Keywords: Bayesian Persuasion, Fair Division, Submodular Optimization}
}
Document
Finding a Fair Scoring Function for Top-k Selection: From Hardness to Practice

Authors: Guangya Cai

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 367, 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)


Abstract
We study the problem of finding a fair linear scoring function over (numerical) attributes for top-k selection, ensuring fairness through a proportional representation constraint on the protected group. Existing algorithms do not scale efficiently, particularly in higher dimensions. Our hardness analysis shows that in more than two dimensions, no algorithm is likely to scale efficiently with respect to dataset size, and the computational complexity is likely to grow rapidly with dimensionality. However, the hardness results also provide key insights guiding algorithm design, leading to our two-pronged solution: (1) For small k, our analysis reveals a gap in the hardness barrier. By addressing various engineering challenges, including achieving efficient parallelism, we turn this potential of efficiency into an optimized geometry-based algorithm delivering substantial performance gains. (2) For large k, where the hardness is robust, we employ a practically efficient optimization-based algorithm which, despite being theoretically worse, achieves superior real-world performance. Experimental evaluations on real-world datasets then explore scenarios where worst-case behavior does not manifest, identifying areas critical to practical performance. Our solution achieves speedups of up to several orders of magnitude compared to the state of the art, an efficiency made possible through a tight integration of hardness analysis, algorithm design, practical engineering, and empirical evaluation.

Cite as

Guangya Cai. Finding a Fair Scoring Function for Top-k Selection: From Hardness to Practice. In 42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 367, pp. 26:1-26:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{cai:LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.26,
  author =	{Cai, Guangya},
  title =	{{Finding a Fair Scoring Function for Top-k Selection: From Hardness to Practice}},
  booktitle =	{42nd International Symposium on Computational Geometry (SoCG 2026)},
  pages =	{26:1--26:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-418-5},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{367},
  editor =	{Ahn, Hee-Kap and Hoffmann, Michael and Nayyeri, Amir},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.26},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-258320},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.SoCG.2026.26},
  annote =	{Keywords: Fairness, Top-k, Integration}
}
Document
Tight Loops, Smooth Streams: Responsive Congestion Control for Real-Time Video

Authors: Pantea Karimi, Sadjad Fouladi, Vibhaalakshmi Sivaraman, and Mohammad Alizadeh

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 139, 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)


Abstract
Real-time video streaming relies on rate control to match video bitrate to network capacity while keeping latency low. Existing deployed video rate controllers react slowly to network changes, causing under-utilization and latency spikes. In contrast, modern delay-sensitive congestion control algorithms (CCAs) adapt on round-trip-time timescales, maintaining a tight feedback loop that achieves both high utilization and low latency. We introduce Vidaptive, a lightweight framework that enables real-time video to leverage responsive CCAs without codec changes. Vidaptive decouples encoding from transmission: it paces video frames at the CCA’s rate and injects dummy packets when the encoder output is insufficient, preserving a continuous feedback loop. An online algorithm dynamically adjusts the encoder’s target bitrate to align with CCA capacity while bounding frame latency. Implemented in Google WebRTC, Vidaptive improves both video quality and tail latency on diverse cellular traces. Compared to GCC, it delivers 1.5× higher bitrate, +40% VMAF, +1.4 dB SSIM, +1.3 dB PSNR, and reduces 95th-percentile frame latency by 57% (2.2 seconds). Against Salsify, it achieves lower tail latency without invasive codec modifications. These results show that coupling existing CCAs with a thin adaptation layer can outperform specialized video rate controllers while remaining deployable in practice.

Cite as

Pantea Karimi, Sadjad Fouladi, Vibhaalakshmi Sivaraman, and Mohammad Alizadeh. Tight Loops, Smooth Streams: Responsive Congestion Control for Real-Time Video. In 1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 139, pp. 9:1-9:29, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{karimi_et_al:OASIcs.NINeS.2026.9,
  author =	{Karimi, Pantea and Fouladi, Sadjad and Sivaraman, Vibhaalakshmi and Alizadeh, Mohammad},
  title =	{{Tight Loops, Smooth Streams: Responsive Congestion Control for Real-Time Video}},
  booktitle =	{1st New Ideas in Networked Systems (NINeS 2026)},
  pages =	{9:1--9:29},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-414-7},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{139},
  editor =	{Argyraki, Katerina and Panda, Aurojit},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.9},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-255942},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.NINeS.2026.9},
  annote =	{Keywords: real-time video, congestion control, transport protocols, video rate control, low-latency video communication, tight feedback loop}
}
Document
The Secretary Problem with Predictions and a Chosen Order

Authors: Helia Karisani, Mohammadreza Daneshvaramoli, Hedyeh Beyhaghi, Mohammad Hajiesmaili, and Cameron Musco

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 362, 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)


Abstract
We study a learning-augmented variant of the secretary problem, recently introduced by Fujii and Yoshida (2023). In this variant, the decision-maker has access to machine-learned predictions of candidate values in advance. The key challenge is to balance consistency and robustness: when the predictions are accurate, the algorithm should hire a near-best secretary; however, if they are inaccurate, the algorithm should still achieve a bounded competitive ratio. We consider both the standard Random Order Secretary Problem (ROSP), where candidates arrive in a uniform random order, and a more natural model in the learning-augmented setting, where the decision-maker can choose the arrival order based on the predicted candidate values. This model, which we call the Chosen Order Secretary Problem (COSP), can capture scenarios such as an interview schedule that is set by the decision-maker. We propose a novel algorithm that applies to both ROSP and COSP. Building on the approach of Fujii and Yoshida, our method switches from fully trusting predictions to a threshold-based rule when a large deviation of a prediction is observed. Importantly, unlike the algorithm of Fujii and Yoshida, our algorithm uses randomization as part of its decision logic. We show that if ε ∈ [0,1] denotes the maximum multiplicative prediction error, then for ROSP our algorithm achieves competitive ratio max {0.221, (1-ε)/(1+ε)}, improving on a previous bound of max {0.215, (1-ε)/(1+ε)} due to Fujii and Yoshida [Fujii and Yoshida, 2023]. For COSP, our algorithm achieves max {0.262, (1-ε)/(1+ε)}. This surpasses a 0.25 upper bound on the worst-case competitive ratio that applies to the approach of Fujii and Yoshida, and gets closer to the classical secretary benchmark of 1/e ≈ 0.368, which is an upper bound for any algorithm. Our result for COSP highlights the benefit of integrating predictions with arrival-order control in online decision-making.

Cite as

Helia Karisani, Mohammadreza Daneshvaramoli, Hedyeh Beyhaghi, Mohammad Hajiesmaili, and Cameron Musco. The Secretary Problem with Predictions and a Chosen Order. In 17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 362, pp. 86:1-86:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2026)


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@InProceedings{karisani_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.86,
  author =	{Karisani, Helia and Daneshvaramoli, Mohammadreza and Beyhaghi, Hedyeh and Hajiesmaili, Mohammad and Musco, Cameron},
  title =	{{The Secretary Problem with Predictions and a Chosen Order}},
  booktitle =	{17th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2026)},
  pages =	{86:1--86:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-410-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2026},
  volume =	{362},
  editor =	{Saraf, Shubhangi},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.86},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-253734},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2026.86},
  annote =	{Keywords: Secretary problem, learning-augmented algorithms, online algorithms}
}
Document
Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility? (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25122)

Authors: Bran Knowles, Vicki L. Hanson, Christoph Becker, Mike Berners-Lee, Andrew A. Chien, Benoit Combemale, Vlad Coroamă, Koen De Bosschere, Yi Ding, Adrian Friday, Boris Gamazaychikov, Lynda Hardman, Simon Hinterholzer, Mattias Höjer, Lynn Kaack, Lenneke Kuijer, Anne-Laure Ligozat, Jan Tobias Muehlberg, Yunmook Nah, Thomas Olsson, Anne-Cécile Orgerie, Daniel Pargman, Birgit Penzenstadler, Tom Romanoff, Emma Strubell, Colin Venters, and Junhua Zhao

Published in: Dagstuhl Manifestos, Volume 11, Issue 1 (2025)


Abstract
This Manifesto was produced from the Perspectives Workshop 25122 entitled "Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility?" held March 16-19, 2025 at Schloss Dagstuhl, Germany. The Workshop provided a forum for world-leading computer scientists and expert consultants on environmental policy and sustainable transition to engage in a critical and urgent conversation about computing’s responsibilities in addressing climate change - or more aptly, climate crisis. The resulting Manifesto outlines commitments and directions for future action which, if adopted as a basis for more responsible computing practices, will help ensure that these technologies do not threaten the long-term habitability of the planet. We preface our Manifesto with a recognition that humanity is on a path that is not in agreement with international global warming targets and explore how computing technologies are currently hastening the overshoot of these boundaries. We critically assess the vaunted potential for harnessing computing technologies for the mitigation of global warming, agreeing that, under current circumstances, computing is contributing to negative environmental impacts in other sectors. Computing primarily improves efficiency and reduces costs which leads to more consumption and more negative environmental impact. Relying solely on efficiency gains in computing has thus far proven to be insufficient to curb global greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, computing’s purpose within a strategy for tackling climate change must be reimagined. Our recommendations cover changes that need to be urgently made to the design priorities of computing technologies, but also speak to the more systemic shift in mindset, with sustainability and human rights providing a necessary moral foundation for developing the kinds of computing technologies most needed by society. We also stress the importance of digital policy that accounts for both the direct material impacts of computing and the detrimental indirect impacts arising from computing-enabled efficiencies, and the role of computing professionals in informing policy making.

Cite as

Bran Knowles, Vicki L. Hanson, Christoph Becker, Mike Berners-Lee, Andrew A. Chien, Benoit Combemale, Vlad Coroamă, Koen De Bosschere, Yi Ding, Adrian Friday, Boris Gamazaychikov, Lynda Hardman, Simon Hinterholzer, Mattias Höjer, Lynn Kaack, Lenneke Kuijer, Anne-Laure Ligozat, Jan Tobias Muehlberg, Yunmook Nah, Thomas Olsson, Anne-Cécile Orgerie, Daniel Pargman, Birgit Penzenstadler, Tom Romanoff, Emma Strubell, Colin Venters, and Junhua Zhao. Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility? (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25122). In Dagstuhl Manifestos, Volume 11, Issue 1, pp. 1-18, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@Article{knowles_et_al:DagMan.11.1.1,
  author =	{Knowles, Bran and Hanson, Vicki L. and Becker, Christoph and Berners-Lee, Mike and Chien, Andrew A. and Combemale, Benoit and Coroam\u{a}, Vlad and De Bosschere, Koen and Ding, Yi and Friday, Adrian and Gamazaychikov, Boris and Hardman, Lynda and Hinterholzer, Simon and H\"{o}jer, Mattias and Kaack, Lynn and Kuijer, Lenneke and Ligozat, Anne-Laure and Muehlberg, Jan Tobias and Nah, Yunmook and Olsson, Thomas and Orgerie, Anne-C\'{e}cile and Pargman, Daniel and Penzenstadler, Birgit and Romanoff, Tom and Strubell, Emma and Venters, Colin and Zhao, Junhua},
  title =	{{Climate Change: What is Computing’s Responsibility? (Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop 25122)}},
  pages =	{1--18},
  journal =	{Dagstuhl Manifestos},
  ISSN =	{2193-2433},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{11},
  number =	{1},
  editor =	{Knowles, Bran and Hanson, Vicki L. and Becker, Christoph and Berners-Lee, Mike and Chien, Andrew A. and Combemale, Benoit and Coroam\u{a}, Vlad and De Bosschere, Koen and Ding, Yi and Friday, Adrian and Gamazaychikov, Boris and Hardman, Lynda and Hinterholzer, Simon and H\"{o}jer, Mattias and Kaack, Lynn and Kuijer, Lenneke and Ligozat, Anne-Laure and Muehlberg, Jan Tobias and Nah, Yunmook and Olsson, Thomas and Orgerie, Anne-C\'{e}cile and Pargman, Daniel and Penzenstadler, Birgit and Romanoff, Tom and Strubell, Emma and Venters, Colin and Zhao, Junhua},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/DagMan.11.1.1},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-250724},
  doi =		{10.4230/DagMan.11.1.1},
  annote =	{Keywords: sustainability, climate change, efficiency, supply chain management, climate modelling}
}
Document
Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems

Authors: Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 351, 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)


Abstract
We study three classical online problems - k-server, k-taxi, and chasing size k sets - through a lens of smoothed analysis. Our setting allows request locations to be adversarial up to small perturbations, interpolating between worst-case and average-case models. Specifically, we show that if the metric space is contained in a ball in any normed space and requests are drawn from distributions whose density functions are upper bounded by 1/σ times the uniform density over the ball, then all three problems admit polylog(k/σ)-competitive algorithms. Our approach is simple: it reduces smoothed instances to fully adversarial instances on finite metrics and leverages existing algorithms in a black-box manner. We also provide a lower bound showing that no algorithm can achieve a competitive ratio sub-polylogarithmic in k/σ, matching our upper bounds up to the exponent of the polylogarithm. In contrast, the best known competitive ratios for these problems in the fully adversarial setting are 2k-1, ∞ and Θ(k²), respectively.

Cite as

Christian Coester and Jack Umenberger. Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems. In 33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 351, pp. 115:1-115:14, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{coester_et_al:LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115,
  author =	{Coester, Christian and Umenberger, Jack},
  title =	{{Smoothed Analysis of Online Metric Problems}},
  booktitle =	{33rd Annual European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA 2025)},
  pages =	{115:1--115:14},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-395-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{351},
  editor =	{Benoit, Anne and Kaplan, Haim and Wild, Sebastian and Herman, Grzegorz},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-245847},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ESA.2025.115},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online Algorithms, Competitive Analysis, Smoothed Analysis, k-server, k-taxi, Metrical Service Systems}
}
Document
Mapping the Tradeoffs and Limitations of Algorithmic Fairness

Authors: Etam Benger and Katrina Ligett

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 329, 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)


Abstract
Sufficiency and separation are two fundamental criteria in classification fairness. For binary classifiers, these concepts correspond to subgroup calibration and equalized odds, respectively, and are known to be incompatible except in trivial cases. In this work, we explore a relaxation of these criteria based on f-divergences between distributions - essentially the same relaxation studied in the literature on approximate multicalibration - analyze their relationships, and derive implications for fair representations and downstream uses (post-processing) of representations. We show that when a protected attribute is determinable from features present in the data, the (relaxed) criteria of sufficiency and separation exhibit a tradeoff, forming a convex Pareto frontier. Moreover, we prove that when a protected attribute is not fully encoded in the data, achieving full sufficiency may be impossible. This finding not only strengthens the case against "fairness through unawareness" but also highlights an important caveat for work on (multi-)calibration.

Cite as

Etam Benger and Katrina Ligett. Mapping the Tradeoffs and Limitations of Algorithmic Fairness. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 19:1-19:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{benger_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.19,
  author =	{Benger, Etam and Ligett, Katrina},
  title =	{{Mapping the Tradeoffs and Limitations of Algorithmic Fairness}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{19:1--19:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-367-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{329},
  editor =	{Bun, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.19},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231465},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.19},
  annote =	{Keywords: Algorithmic fairness, information theory, sufficiency-separation tradeoff}
}
Document
When Does a Predictor Know Its Own Loss?

Authors: Aravind Gollakota, Parikshit Gopalan, Aayush Karan, Charlotte Peale, and Udi Wieder

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 329, 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)


Abstract
Given a predictor and a loss function, how well can we predict the loss that the predictor will incur on an input? This is the problem of loss prediction, a key computational task associated with uncertainty estimation for a predictor. In a classification setting, a predictor will typically predict a distribution over labels and hence have its own estimate of the loss that it will incur, given by the entropy of the predicted distribution. Should we trust this estimate? In other words, when does the predictor know what it knows and what it does not know? In this work we study the theoretical foundations of loss prediction. Our main contribution is to establish tight connections between nontrivial loss prediction and certain forms of multicalibration [Ursula Hébert-Johnson et al., 2018], a multigroup fairness notion that asks for calibrated predictions across computationally identifiable subgroups. Formally, we show that a loss predictor that is able to improve on the self-estimate of a predictor yields a witness to a failure of multicalibration, and vice versa. This has the implication that nontrivial loss prediction is in effect no easier or harder than auditing for multicalibration. We support our theoretical results with experiments that show a robust positive correlation between the multicalibration error of a predictor and the efficacy of training a loss predictor.

Cite as

Aravind Gollakota, Parikshit Gopalan, Aayush Karan, Charlotte Peale, and Udi Wieder. When Does a Predictor Know Its Own Loss?. In 6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 329, pp. 22:1-22:22, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)


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@InProceedings{gollakota_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2025.22,
  author =	{Gollakota, Aravind and Gopalan, Parikshit and Karan, Aayush and Peale, Charlotte and Wieder, Udi},
  title =	{{When Does a Predictor Know Its Own Loss?}},
  booktitle =	{6th Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2025)},
  pages =	{22:1--22:22},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-367-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{329},
  editor =	{Bun, Mark},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.22},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-231490},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2025.22},
  annote =	{Keywords: loss prediction, multicalibration, active learning, algorithmic fairness, calibration, predictive uncertainty, uncertainty estimation, machine learning theory}
}
Document
Recovering from Biased Data: Can Fairness Constraints Improve Accuracy?

Authors: Avrim Blum and Kevin Stangl

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 156, 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)


Abstract
Multiple fairness constraints have been proposed in the literature, motivated by a range of concerns about how demographic groups might be treated unfairly by machine learning classifiers. In this work we consider a different motivation; learning from biased training data. We posit several ways in which training data may be biased, including having a more noisy or negatively biased labeling process on members of a disadvantaged group, or a decreased prevalence of positive or negative examples from the disadvantaged group, or both. Given such biased training data, Empirical Risk Minimization (ERM) may produce a classifier that not only is biased but also has suboptimal accuracy on the true data distribution. We examine the ability of fairness-constrained ERM to correct this problem. In particular, we find that the Equal Opportunity fairness constraint [Hardt et al., 2016] combined with ERM will provably recover the Bayes optimal classifier under a range of bias models. We also consider other recovery methods including re-weighting the training data, Equalized Odds, and Demographic Parity, and Calibration. These theoretical results provide additional motivation for considering fairness interventions even if an actor cares primarily about accuracy.

Cite as

Avrim Blum and Kevin Stangl. Recovering from Biased Data: Can Fairness Constraints Improve Accuracy?. In 1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 156, pp. 3:1-3:20, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{blum_et_al:LIPIcs.FORC.2020.3,
  author =	{Blum, Avrim and Stangl, Kevin},
  title =	{{Recovering from Biased Data: Can Fairness Constraints Improve Accuracy?}},
  booktitle =	{1st Symposium on Foundations of Responsible Computing (FORC 2020)},
  pages =	{3:1--3:20},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-142-9},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{156},
  editor =	{Roth, Aaron},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.3},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-120192},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.FORC.2020.3},
  annote =	{Keywords: fairness in machine learning, equal opportunity, bias, machine learning}
}
Document
Advancing Subgroup Fairness via Sleeping Experts

Authors: Avrim Blum and Thodoris Lykouris

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 151, 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)


Abstract
We study methods for improving fairness to subgroups in settings with overlapping populations and sequential predictions. Classical notions of fairness focus on the balance of some property across different populations. However, in many applications the goal of the different groups is not to be predicted equally but rather to be predicted well. We demonstrate that the task of satisfying this guarantee for multiple overlapping groups is not straightforward and show that for the simple objective of unweighted average of false negative and false positive rate, satisfying this for overlapping populations can be statistically impossible even when we are provided predictors that perform well separately on each subgroup. On the positive side, we show that when individuals are equally important to the different groups they belong to, this goal is achievable; to do so, we draw a connection to the sleeping experts literature in online learning. Motivated by the one-sided feedback in natural settings of interest, we extend our results to such a feedback model. We also provide a game-theoretic interpretation of our results, examining the incentives of participants to join the system and to provide the system full information about predictors they may possess. We end with several interesting open problems concerning the strength of guarantees that can be achieved in a computationally efficient manner.

Cite as

Avrim Blum and Thodoris Lykouris. Advancing Subgroup Fairness via Sleeping Experts. In 11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 151, pp. 55:1-55:24, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2020)


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@InProceedings{blum_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.55,
  author =	{Blum, Avrim and Lykouris, Thodoris},
  title =	{{Advancing Subgroup Fairness via Sleeping Experts}},
  booktitle =	{11th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2020)},
  pages =	{55:1--55:24},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-134-4},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2020},
  volume =	{151},
  editor =	{Vidick, Thomas},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.55},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-117402},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2020.55},
  annote =	{Keywords: Online learning, Fairness, Game theory}
}
Document
Selection Problems in the Presence of Implicit Bias

Authors: Jon Kleinberg and Manish Raghavan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 94, 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)


Abstract
Over the past two decades, the notion of implicit bias has come to serve as an important com- ponent in our understanding of bias and discrimination in activities such as hiring, promotion, and school admissions. Research on implicit bias posits that when people evaluate others - for example, in a hiring context - their unconscious biases about membership in particular demo- graphic groups can have an effect on their decision-making, even when they have no deliberate intention to discriminate against members of these groups. A growing body of experimental work has demonstrated the effect that implicit bias can have in producing adverse outcomes. Here we propose a theoretical model for studying the effects of implicit bias on selection decisions, and a way of analyzing possible procedural remedies for implicit bias within this model. A canonical situation represented by our model is a hiring setting, in which recruiters are trying to evaluate the future potential of job applicants, but their estimates of potential are skewed by an unconscious bias against members of one group. In this model, we show that measures such as the Rooney Rule, a requirement that at least one member of an underrepresented group be selected, can not only improve the representation of the affected group, but also lead to higher payoffs in absolute terms for the organization performing the recruiting. However, identifying the conditions under which such measures can lead to improved payoffs involves subtle trade- offs between the extent of the bias and the underlying distribution of applicant characteristics, leading to novel theoretical questions about order statistics in the presence of probabilistic side information.

Cite as

Jon Kleinberg and Manish Raghavan. Selection Problems in the Presence of Implicit Bias. In 9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 94, pp. 33:1-33:17, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2018)


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@InProceedings{kleinberg_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.33,
  author =	{Kleinberg, Jon and Raghavan, Manish},
  title =	{{Selection Problems in the Presence of Implicit Bias}},
  booktitle =	{9th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2018)},
  pages =	{33:1--33:17},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-060-6},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2018},
  volume =	{94},
  editor =	{Karlin, Anna R.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.33},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-83234},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2018.33},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, power laws, order statistics, implicit bias, Rooney Rule}
}
Document
Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores

Authors: Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Manish Raghavan

Published in: LIPIcs, Volume 67, 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)


Abstract
Recent discussion in the public sphere about algorithmic classification has involved tension between competing notions of what it means for a probabilistic classification to be fair to different groups. We formalize three fairness conditions that lie at the heart of these debates, and we prove that except in highly constrained special cases, there is no method that can satisfy these three conditions simultaneously. Moreover, even satisfying all three conditions approximately requires that the data lie in an approximate version of one of the constrained special cases identified by our theorem. These results suggest some of the ways in which key notions of fairness are incompatible with each other, and hence provide a framework for thinking about the trade-offs between them.

Cite as

Jon Kleinberg, Sendhil Mullainathan, and Manish Raghavan. Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores. In 8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017). Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs), Volume 67, pp. 43:1-43:23, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2017)


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@InProceedings{kleinberg_et_al:LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.43,
  author =	{Kleinberg, Jon and Mullainathan, Sendhil and Raghavan, Manish},
  title =	{{Inherent Trade-Offs in the Fair Determination of Risk Scores}},
  booktitle =	{8th Innovations in Theoretical Computer Science Conference (ITCS 2017)},
  pages =	{43:1--43:23},
  series =	{Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-029-3},
  ISSN =	{1868-8969},
  year =	{2017},
  volume =	{67},
  editor =	{Papadimitriou, Christos H.},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.43},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-81560},
  doi =		{10.4230/LIPIcs.ITCS.2017.43},
  annote =	{Keywords: algorithmic fairness, risk tools, calibration}
}
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