Eunhye AhnAssistant Professor of Human Development & Family Studiesshe/her/hers

My research asks how we can thoughtfully navigate the inequalities being reshaped by AI, and how we can use these same technologies to close equity gaps. I approach AI from both directions, studying it as a social force and deploying it as a research tool. One line of my work examines who is being left behind as AI reshapes society, and how this latest wave of technology transforms existing inequalities rather than simply creating new ones. A second line focuses on the human side of these systems. I study how people can remain critically engaged when using AI in high-stakes decisions, neither defaulting to blind trust nor retreating into blanket rejection, so that these tools genuinely support human judgment and well-being. In a third line of work, I turn AI and data science into instruments for equity, using computational methods to understand how children and families move through service systems, where those systems fail them, and how policy discourse shapes the institutions families encounter. Across all of this, two principles guide me: Truly human-centered AI must be designed around people, not the other way around; and decisions about AI must account for the next generation, not just present conditions.

For more, see Ahn’s CV.