Future of Information Lab
The Future of Information Lab is a research group in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, led by Dr. Marianne Aubin Le Quéré. We conduct mixed-method research in Human-Computer Interaction, Computational Social Science, and Communication.
Research directions
We aim to help people sustain an intentional, trustworthy, and constructive relationship with their online information ecosystems in the generative AI age. Our work currently follows three broad directions.
-
Agency over information
Feeds are built to maximize engagement, and many people feel they have lost control of what they see. We design tools, like personalized and agentic feeds, that help people construct their information environments with intent and look after their wellbeing.
news and mental health · social media and wellbeing · personalized and agentic feeds
More on this direction → -
Trust in AI-mediated information
AI increasingly shapes how people judge the credibility of civic information. We study how to calibrate trust in AI-generated content, and how journalists, creators and moderators can show the work behind what they publish.
credibility, trust, and provenance of AI content · generative AI search · AI tools for information workers
More on this direction → -
Attention and informedness
What people see online impacts how they understand the world, yet that exposure is often siloed or opaque. We measure what civic information people actually encounter, in what contexts, and how they make sense of it.
news knowledge index · attention to online news · local news availability
More on this direction →
News
Marianne and Hui En attended the Computation and Journalism Symposium, where they ran a workshop on personalized, agentic news feeds.
The first PhD student, Hui En Loo, joined the lab.
Marianne began her appointment as an Assistant Professor in the School of Information Sciences, and the Future of Information Lab is born.