AI Good vs. Evil

ABSTRACT
Online manipulation is a battlefield in which AI is being used as a weapon by both attackers and defenders. This talk overviews research exploring both sides. Bad actors are exploiting generative AI to easily and cheaply create fake profiles and content that are hard to recognize. At the same time, AI provides us with tools to mitigate online harms, such as methods to detect inauthentic accounts and coordinated information operations, scale up fact-checking, and support moderation. Even on the good side of the battlefield, we must account for the limits of AI, unintended consequences when people interact with AI, and vulnerabilities of AI to subtle forms of bias and abuse.