Panel debate

Misinformation:

Challenges and solutions

Wednesday 23 October 2024 09.00

Misinformation, the dissemination of false or misleading information, is increasingly prevalent in today’s interconnected digital age, facilitated by the rapid spread of information through online platforms and social media networks.

This panel brings together experts from diverse disciplines to examine the underlying mechanisms driving the spread of misinformation, dissect its societal impacts, and propose effective strategies for combating it.


Panel
  • Serge Belongie, Director and Professor, Pioneer Centre for AI
  • Anja Bechmann, Professor, School of Communication and Culture – Media Studies, Aarhus University
  • Diego F. Aranha, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University

Moderator

Rolf Hvidfeldt, Associate Professor, Humanomics Research Centre, Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University

Rolf Hvidtfeldt, Associate Professor
Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University

Rolf Hvidtfeldt is an Associate Professor of Science Studies at Aalborg University in Copenhagen, where he co-leads the Humanomics Research Group. He was recently appointed co-director of the FRONTIER Center for Advanced SSH initiative at Aalborg University.
 
With PhD, MA, and BA degrees in philosophy, specializing in the philosophy of interdisciplinary science, psychology, and computer science, his most recent research has focused on the impact, communication, and management of science and innovation, as well as on interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers and practitioners.
 
For several years, he has taught courses and workshops on interdisciplinary research leadership and impact strategy and planning. He has served as an advisor on the development of numerous large-scale interdisciplinary research projects across various disciplines, including biology, bioimaging, psychiatry, psychology, political science, sociology, computer science, research evaluation, and communication. Additionally, he has acted as an advisor for funding agencies, universities, interest groups, and national and international public organizations.
 
Rolf is currently involved in several AI-related projects, including Algorithms, Data, and Democracy (funded by The Velux Foundations) and Responsible AI for Value Creation (funded by The Grundfos Foundation), with a focus on the relevance of different disciplinary perspectives for developing and understanding beneficial AI-based technologies.

Serge Belongie, Director and Professor
Pioneer Centre for AI

Serge is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Copenhagen and head of the Pioneer Centre for AI. Previously, he was the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Professor of Computer Science at Cornell Tech where he also served as Associate Dean. He has also been a member of the Visiting Faculty program at Google.

He is known for his contributions to the fields of computer vision and machine learning, specifically object recognition and image segmentation, and he has co-founded several startups in those areas. He also serves as a board member of the European Laboratory for Learning and Intelligent Systems (ELLIS).

Recent interests include research using language and visions models toward the development of technology that will allow everyday Internet users to protect themselves from misinformation.

Anja Bechmann, Professor
School of Communication and Culture – Media Studies, Aarhus University

Anja Bechmann is professor at Media Studies and director of the interdisciplinary research center DATALAB – Center for Digital Social Research at Aarhus University. Her research examines digital and social media communication and collective behavior using large-scale data collection and applied machine learning. She is Principle Investigator of the Independent Research Fund Denmark project “Social Media Influence: A large-scale study of social media as as infrastructures for influence on national populations with a focus on false information” and former Chief Investigator of the EU project NORDIS and was founding executive board member of the European Digital Media Observatory.

She is appointed member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and of the Academy of Technical Sciences. She has been a member of the EU Commission High-level expert group on disinformation and is continuously invited as an independent academic to e.g., European Parliament, Ministry of Defense, and Ministry of Culture.

In 2019 she was appointed Thinker in Residence by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Her research has been funded by national and international research councils such as the Danish Council for Independent Research, Swedish Research Council, Danish Agency for Science and Innovation, Horizon 2020, EU CEF, and Aarhus University Research Foundation.

Diego F. Aranha, Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science, Aarhus University

Diego F. Aranha is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University. His professional experience is in Cryptography and Computer Security, with a special interest in the efficient implementation of cryptographic algorithms and security analysis of real-world systems.

He received the Google Latin America Research Award for research on privacy twice, and the MIT TechReview’s Innovators Under 35 Brazil Award for his work in electronic voting.