Bot Wars: Prof. Ruths unleashes Citizen Science to fight disinformation-spreading AI

Nov. 15, 2023

Professor Derek Ruths just got awarded a major FRQ grant to fight disinformation. AI-powered bots on social media are often used to spread disinformation. We’d like to remove these bots. Unfortunately, they are quite good at pretending to be humans online. This makes them hard to find. As a result, we don't how well bot detection methods work and how to make them better. In this research, we will be running an X-prize-like competition in which teams of developers, students, scientists, artists, and professionals build bots and bot detection systems. This will allow researchers, for the first time, to observe how cutting edge bots work, how they spread disinformation, and how they can be more effectively detected and managed.