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Misinformation has become a major challenge of global governance. Misinformation polarizes public opinion, infiltrates the electoral process, and undermines our democracy. The recent development of artificial intelligence offers us opportunities and challenges. We can leverage Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT to identify false narratives and analyze suspicious actors faster than before. At the same time, AI-generated misinformation (such as deep fake) is becoming ubiquitous on the Internet. In this talk, we show what modern misinformation operations look like, and how to detect them. We demo our analysis platform Information Tracer. This tool integrates cross-platform data mining, AI-based text analysis, and data visualization technologies. We share several real-world investigations -- from discovering trolling campaigns against Amber Heard, to monitoring global elections. Finally, we want audiences to think: what choice should one make when the amount of information one receives exceeds his/her capacity to handle?

About the Speaker

Zhouhan Chen is a cybersecurity expert and entrepreneur. He is the founder of Safelink Network, a company that uses technologies to analyze social media data and identify online harms such as misinformation and hate speech. Zhouhan works on the intersection of data science, Internet safety, and journalism. He created Information Tracer, a tool to trace and visualize online information spread. For this work, he has received fundings and awards from NYC Media Lab, American Public Media Group, International Center for Journalists and the Pulitzer Center. Zhouhan used to work for security and anti-abuse teams at Twitter, Google and Amazon Web Services. He obtained a PhD in Data Science from New York University and a Master’s in Computer Science from Rice University.