News

University of Washington releases "JobBench: Aligning Agent Work with Human Desire"

ACTION researchers at the University of Washington have released a new evaluation standard for the real-world utility of AI agents. JobBench, now live at job-bench.github.io, applies a human lens to the issue of AI in the workplace. Rather than asking what work AI agents can absorb, the benchmark considers what tasks human professionals want AI to absorb, and then measures AI models' ability to do the work. 

Panel Interview on Teaching Veridical Data Science Features Bin Yu

ACTION faculty member Bin Yu (University of California, Berkeley) joined a panel on "Teaching Veridical Data Science" during the 2025 Joint Statistical Meeting (JSM) of the American Statistical Association (ASA) in Nashville, Tennessee. Others panelists included Dr. Matteo Bonvini (Rutgers), Dr.

AIVO enables collaborative project management

How do you coordinate large AI research teams to tackle complex societal challenges?

The AI Virtual Organization (AIVO) brought together project managers from 25 AI Institutes to share their experiences and help answer this question. Their new paper is now available online and offers practical recommendations for funding agencies, academic institutions, and research organizations on enabling effective team science.

Read the paper: https://lnkd.in/gsJSfKxb

Who has the best programmers? Join Rutgers' ICPC-style Competition

ACTION has a dozen participating campuses collaborating on cutting-edge research at intersection of AI and cybersecurity. But which of these campuses boasts the best programmers?

Graduate student travel grants available through AIVO

The NSF AI Institute Virtual Organization (AIVO) is a nexus for the 29 National AI Institutes established by NSF and USDA-AIFA. AIVO connects the institutes, allowing them to benefit from knowledge sharing and organizational best practices. To strengthen collaboration across geographic and disciplinary lines, AIVO also provides travel support.

Winners of iCTF 2026 - Battle of the Agents

The 2026 International Capture The Flag (iCTF) competition officially concluded on March 13 at 4:00 PM PDT. Over five intense days, starting March 09, high school and undergraduate teams from across the globe put their cybersecurity skills to the ultimate test.

A "Visual Aesthetic Benchmark" (VAB) to Standardize Beauty in the Age of AI

Researchers at BakeLab, a leading artificial intelligence research group at the University of Washington, in collaboration with UCSB, Stanford University, University of Notre Dame, and IBM Research, have announced the launch of the Visual Aesthetic Benchmark (VAB). This groundbreaking project aims to bridge the gap between technical image generation and human-centric aesthetic value, providing the most comprehensive framework to date for evaluating how "good" AI-generated images actually look.

2025 ACTION Intern Selected for National Cybersecurity Fellowship

SANTA BARBARA, CA — 27 Feb 2026 — The NSF AI Institute for Agent-based Cyber Threat Intelligence and Operation (ACTION) at UC Santa Barbara is proud to announce that 2025 Summer Intern Anoushka Sawant has been awarded a prestigious fellowship with the National Community College Cybersecurity (NCyTE) Center.