The pervasive influence of social media platforms has undeniably transformed the landscape of contemporary discourse. While these platforms facilitate open discussions on diverse topics, they simultaneously present significant challenges associated with misinformation and the manipulation of public opinion.
With the advent of advanced Artificial Intelligence (generative AI) and Large Language Models (LLM), the dissemination of misinformation has become increasingly sophisticated, threatening the integrity of online discourse and eroding trust in institutions and among communities. It is crucial for policymakers, academics, and industry leaders to collectively address these issues. The goal of the summer school on “Artificial Intelligence for a Secure Society” is to empower individuals with the means to foster a more secure communities, both online and offline.
By gathering experts from diverse fields, the program will tackle pressing challenges through the lens of AI. Participants will learn how artificial intelligence can be used to identify, analyze, mitigate, and counteract various threats, including misinformation, disinformation, fake news, orchestrated online campaigns, and information warfare.
Topics covered will include:
- Data Science
- Artificial Intelligence
- Cybersecurity
- Social networks Analysis
- Network Science
- Generative AI
- Trustworthy AI
- Explainable AI
- Neural Networks
- Machine/Deep Learning
Features of the Summer School:
- Keynotes
- Interactive lectures
- Hands-on group projects
- Networking opportunities with experts and peers
General Chairs
- Carmela Comito (ICAR-CNR)
- Maurizio Tesconi (IIT-CNR)
- Giuseppe Manco (ICAR-CNR)
Organizing Committee
- Angelica Liguori (ICAR-CNR)
- Daniela Gallo (ICAR-CNR & University of Salento)
- Fabrizio Durante (University of Salento)
Topic 1: Artificial Intelligence: opportunities and risks
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Michela Milano
Bio Speaker:
Michela Milano is a Full Professor at the University of Speaker Bio: Bologna, where she also serves as the Director of the ALMA-AI Strategic Center on Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence and the Director of the Digital Societies Center at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento. She has published over 180 papers in international conferences and journals. Michela Milano has served as Vice President of EurAI and was part of the expert group on Artificial Intelligence appointed by the Italian Government to develop a national AI strategy in 2019 and 2022. She is also a member of the national delegation to the Program Committee of Horizon Europe’s Cluster 4. She is EurAI Fellow, ELLIS Fellow, and a member of the Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering and Technology.
Topic 2: Emergent social conventions and collective bias in LLM populations
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Andrea Baronchelli
Speaker Bio:
Andrea Baronchelli is Professor of Complexity Science at City St George’s University London. His research on human dynamics in decentralised socio-technical systems — including topics such as social norms, (mis)information spreading, polarisation in social networks, blockchain ecosystems, and dark markets — has been published in high impact journals including Science, PNAS and Nature Human Behaviour and has been widely covered from the press.
Topic 3: The Language of Collective Action: Building Solutions in the Digital Era
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Luca Maria Aiello
Speaker Bio:
Luca Maria Aiello is Professor of Data Science at the IT University of Copenhagen, where he is member of the NEtwoRks, Data and Society group (NERDS). Previously, he worked for 10 years as a Research Scientist at Yahoo Labs and Nokia Bell Labs. He conducts research in Computational Social Science with a special focus on understanding cooperation processes through the study of conversational language with the use of advanced Natural Language Processing tools. He has been awarded a 3-year grant from the Carlsberg foundation to investigate emergent processes of climate action in online social media. His work has been covered by hundreds of articles published by news outlets worldwide including Wired, WSJ, and BBC. He was once interviewed by Captain James T. Kirk.
Topic 4: Discover SoBigData: the European Research Infrastructure for social mining
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Roberto Trasarti
Speaker Bio:
Roberto Trasarti is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Information Science and Technologies (ISTI) of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), where he specializes in artificial intelligence, data mining, research infrastructures, and the analysis of large-scale mobility data. In his role as Coordinator of the SoBigData Research Infrastructure (www.sobigdata.eu), he leads multidisciplinary efforts to develop and deploy advanced tools and methodologies for the collection, integration, and exploitation of social and mobility data at the European scale. He is currently focused on the development of the infrastructure and on the ethical use of artificial intelligence. His past works underpin data-driven insights and innovations across the transportation, urban planning, and smart-city domains, contributing to both fundamental research and real-world applications.
Topic 5: On Retrieval Augmented Generation and some Unexpected Effects
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Fabrizio Silvestri
Speaker Bio:
Fabrizio Silvestri is a Full Professor at the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Informatica, Automatica e Gestionale (DIAG) of Sapienza University of Rome and coordinates the Ph.D. program in Data Science. His research focuses on artificial intelligence, particularly on machine learning techniques for web search and natural language processing. He has published over 150 papers in international journals and conferences and holds nine industrial patents. His work has been recognized with awards such as the Test-of-Time Award at the ECIR 2018 conference for a paper published in 2007, along with several best paper awards.
Before his academic career, he worked for eight years in industrial research, holding roles at Yahoo Research and Facebook AI. At Facebook AI, he led teams that developed AI methods to address malicious online activities. Professor Silvestri earned his Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Pisa in 2003, after completing an M.Sc. in computer science (magna cum laude) in 2000. He currently leads the RSTLess research group, which investigates approaches for robust, safe, and transparent deep learning.”
Topic 6: The Role of Persuasion Techniques in Disinformation Detection
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Giovanni Da San Martino
Speaker Bio:
Giovanni Da San Martino is Associate Professor at the University of Padova. He has been Principal Investigator for several projects, received a best paper award and organised events around the topic of disinformation.
Topic 7: Security and Trust in the Age of the "MindMesh"
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Giovanni Da San Martino
Speaker Bio:
Giovanni Da San Martino is Associate Professor at the University of Padova. He has been Principal Investigator for several projects, received a best paper award and organised events around the topic of disinformation.
Topic 8: A Quick and Crash Course on Watermarking
Hours: 3
Speaker: Luca Caviglione
Speaker Bio:
Luca Caviglione (male) is a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Applied Mathematics and Information Technologies of the National Research Council of Italy. He holds a Ph.D. in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the University of Genoa, Italy. His research interests include traffic analysis, network security, and mitigation of threats against the software supply chain.
Topic 9: Analyzing and Countering Information Disorder in the Digital Age
Hours: 3
Speaker: Domenico Furno
Speaker Bio:
Domenico Furno is a computer science researcher (RTD-A) in SERICS, working on AI methods and techniques to enhance Information Disorder Awareness.
Topic 10: Echo Chambers, Polarization and the Role of AI in Online Social Media
Hours: 3
Speaker: Matteo Cinelli
Speaker Bio:
Matteo Cinelli is an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on networks, data science and social media.
Topic 11: Large Language Models as Misinformation Detectors: Promise, Pitfalls, and Research Frontiers
Hours: 3
Speaker: Marinella Petrocchi
Speaker Bio:
Marinella Petrocchi is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Informatics and Telematics of the National Research Council (IIT-CNR) in Pisa, Italy, under the Trust, Security and Privacy research unit. She also collaborates with the Sysma unit at IMT School for Advanced Studies, in Lucca, Italy. Her field of research lies between Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Specifically, she studies novel techniques for online fake news/fake accounts detection and automated methods to rank the reliability of online news media. She is the author of several international publications on these topics and she usually gives talks and lectures on the subject. She is CNR Lead of project Humane: Holistic sUpports to inforMAtioN disordEr, under the NRRP MUR program funded by the EU – NGEU.
Topic 12: Game-theoretic Aspects of Security
Hours: 3
Speaker: Cosimo Vinci and Vittorio Bilò
Speaker Bio:
Cosimo Vinci is a tenure-track researcher at the University of Salento. His research focuses on Algorithmic Game Theory, Approximation and Randomized Algorithms. Vittorio Bilò is an associate professor at the University of Salento. His research focuses on the design of algorithms, and their application to Economics and Social Choice.
Topic 13: Securing the Future: Misinformation, Data Infrastructures, and the AI Lifecycle of Predictive Power
Hours: 1.15
Speaker: Mark Coté
Speaker Bio:
Mark is a Reader in Data and Society in the Digital Humanities department of King’s College London. His cross-disciplinary research addresses the relationship between the human and technical object and examines the societal dimensions of data, computation and AI. He has been PI or CI on EPSRC, H2020, and AHRC grants valued at more than £10 million. He collaborates with computer scientists in social data analytics and cybersecurity, social scientists and policy experts and legal scholars. He is a PI and Strategic Board member of REPHRAIN, the UK’s national research centre for online harm mitigation and data empowerment, and a PI on SoBigData, the European research infrastructure for social data analytics. His work has been presented at conferences and keynotes globally and has been published widely in leading journals across disciplines including Big Data & Society and the IEEE Computer. His keynote talk will propose an innovative socio-technical approach for mapping and intervening in AI-driven misinformation infrastructures.
Who can Apply
The summer school is open to Postgraduate Students, PhD Students, and Researchers interested in Artificial Intelligence.
Deadlines
Early Registration: May 10, 2024
Late Registration: June 10, 2024
How to apply
You can pre-register for the summer school by sending an email expressing your interest at ai4ss[at]icar.cnr.it. Pre-registration is now open. Please attach your CV and a motivation letter. You will receive a confirmation email regarding your enrollment. Once confirmed, you will be able to complete your registration through the website. Since the venue has limited capacity, registration requests will be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.