Interview with Nisarg Shah: Understanding fairness in AI and machine learning

During the 33rd International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI), held in Jeju, I had the opportunity to meet with one of the keynote speakers, and winner of the 2024 IJCAI Computers and Thought Award, Professor Nisarg Shah. I asked him about his research, the role of theory in machine learning research, fairness and safety guarantees, regulation, conference reviews, and advice for those just starting out on their research journey. Could you start by telling us about yourself, your career, and your education? Nisarg Shah (NS): I grew up in India and went to IIT Bombay for my undergraduate. Ever since then, I knew that I wanted to go into higher education and academia. I actually did do an industrial placement after my undergrad, and I got a job offer that was very lucrative and would have been more lucrative than doing a PhD. However, that [money] is not why I wanted to do my PhD. I wanted to do my PhD because I was genuinely curious about different questions in this field, and I wanted to study more about them and have fun while doing it.