How to better study—and then improve—today’s corrupted information environment

March 1, 2024

Social media has been a connector of people near and far, but it has also fueled political conflict, threatened democratic processes, contributed to the spread of public health misinformation, and likely damaged the mental health of some teenagers. Given what’s come to light about these platforms over the last several years, it is increasingly clear that current guardrails—both government regulations and the companies’ internal policies—aren’t sufficient to address the issues plaguing the information environment. But for democracies and their citizens to thrive, a healthy virtual ecosystem is necessary.

A.I. Is Coming for the Past, Too

Jan. 28, 2024

We don’t have to imagine a world where deepfakes can so believably imitate the voices of politicians that they can be used to gin up scandals that could sway elections. It’s already here. Fortunately, there are numerous reasons for optimism about society’s ability to identify fake media and maintain a shared understanding of current events. While we have reason to believe the future may be safe, we worry that the past is not.

Feat. in podcast: The AI Breakdown’s episode “AI’s Threat to History”

Digital tech: some way to go for IPCC-style governance

Aug. 22, 2023

Joseph Bak-Coleman and his colleagues argue that independent bodies modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) could help to confront the risks associated with digital technology (Nature 617, 462–464; 2023). In our view, however, the research base is not ready for an IPCC-like project that can provide IPCC-like benefits.

The Puzzling Non-Use of Data Access Laws: The NetzDG Case

July 10, 2023

One law mandating access to data on illegal content on social media has gone unused, highlighting the need for supporting infrastructure.

A CERN Model for Studying the Information Environment

November 17, 2022

For nearly seventy years, CERN has been a center of gravity for physics and a model for how to support large-scale research collaboration across numerous different countries. Given the challenges facing democracy today related to the information environment, a similar level of effort is required for research on the information environment.

Exploratory Studies