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Special Session

"Untrustworthy AI, Mitigating the Threat of Disinformation with Blockchain"

PhD. Neil Wasserman

Session language: english with spanish subtitles

Abstract

One of the major risks associated with the explosion of AI capabilities is the generation and propagation of disinformation. Inaccurate and malicious data threatens multiple dimensions of individual and community well-being including public health, democratic governance, climate change, and national security. The risks have been exacerbated by the cognitive drain due to millisecond device interactions and AI-enhanced social media algorithms. The talk will speak to the nature of the threat and potential means for mitigating identified risks. In particular, techniques and lessons from blockchain technologies can be used to enhance the quality of data used by Large Language Models. In addition, such capabilities can be applied to implementing governance rules and processes to contain the risks associated with disinformation.

Biography

Neil H. Wasserman is an adjunct prof. in Computer Science at George Washington University (GW). He has taught the course on blockchain technologies since 2018. The course has worked as a laboratory for blockchain use case development. Students have developed designs for applications of blockchain technology to a wide variety of application domains including satellite tracking, land registration, trade authentication, currency stabilization, IoT device access and other areas. Wasserman's research focus has expanded to address the challenges of governance and data integrity in relation to AI systems. He also serves as co-chair of the Global Blockchain Business Council Technical Standards Working Group and serves on the organizing committee of the IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference. Wasserman is a research associate at the GW Cyber Security and Privacy Research Institute focusing on applications of blockchain and related technologies to Disaster Risk Reduction. One project is to use blockchain to enable data sharing and improved risk models for disaster prediction and response. He has spoken frequently on networked behaviors and complex systems at IEEE conferences and other venues. Neil Wasserman has a PhD. (history of science) from Harvard University, and an A.B. (physics) from Cornell University. He has held Marshall and NSF Fellowships at the Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen, and M.I.T. Current interests: data interoperability for disaster risk reduction, blockchain applications, tech ethics and data integrity, behavioral networks and synchronization.