My research investigates how AI systems perpetuate structural harm and advances approaches that aim to restore autonomy and control to the people most impacted by these technologies. In January 2027, I will start as a tenure-track assistant professor of digital media at Georgia Tech. I am recruiting a PhD student to start fall 2027.
I recently defended my PhD on understanding & supporting bottom-up resistance to harmful AI systems at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, advised by Ken Holstein. Previously, I also conducted research at Microsoft Research Montreal’s fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics (FATE) team with Su Lin Blodgett and Alexandra Olteanu, where I explored impacts of and interventions for anthropomorphic AI design. My work has been published in top-tier computing venues including CHI, CSCW, FAccT, and ACL.
Before graduate school, I worked as a growth product manager at Noom and led digital product experimentation efforts for the Wall Street Journal and Barron’s at Dow Jones. I graduated from Brown University with an undergraduate degree in computer science and grew up in the Appalachian Mountains of Northeast Tennessee.
In my free time, I like to run, watch musicals, eat ice cream, and visit libraries. I also am a weaver who recently was artist-in-residence at Praxis Fiber Workshop’s Digital Weaving Lab and am currently regional artist-in-residence in the fibers studio at Contemporary Craft.
HIGHLIGHTED PUBLICATIONS: (see more here)
Alicia DeVrio, Myra Cheng, Lisa Egede, Alexandra Olteanu, & Su Lin Blodgett. A Taxonomy of Linguistic Expressions That Contribute To Anthropomorphism of Language Technologies. CHI, 2025.
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Alicia DeVrio, Motahhare Eslami, & Kenneth Holstein. Building, Shifting, & Employing Power: A Taxonomy of Responses From Below to Algorithmic Harm. FAccT, 2024.
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Alicia DeVos, Aditi Dhabalia, Hong Shen, Kenneth Holstein, & Motahhare Eslami. Toward User-Driven Algorithm Auditing: Investigating users' strategies for uncovering harmful algorithmic behavior. CHI, 2022.
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Hong Shen*, Alicia DeVos*, Motahhare Eslami, & Kenneth Holstein. Everyday Algorithm Auditing: Understanding the power of everyday users in surfacing harmful algorithmic behaviors. CSCW, 2021.
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