{"635700":{"#nid":"635700","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Researchers Use Machine Learning to Fight COVID-19 Disinformation","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EDisinformation on COVID-19 spreads almost faster than the disease.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo ensure Americans can find the most accurate information, College of Computing researchers are creating machine-learning (ML) and data science tools to help fact-checkers be more efficient.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EThe Disinformation Dilemma \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EAlthough having high-quality news is important any time, the ever-changing nature of COVID-19 makes it even more vital that users have access to vetted information. Many Americans receive their news from social media, where rumors can be shared as much as memes.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Rumors, hoaxes, fake cures, bioweapon claims, and disinformation campaigns about COVID-19 are prevalent on social media,\u0026rdquo; said School of Computational Science and Engineering Assistant Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cs.stanford.edu\/~srijan\/\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESrijan Kumar\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E. \u0026ldquo;These induce anger, anxiety, and stress in readers, and in many cases, have even led to fatalities, such as hydroxychloroquine overdose.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ENewsroom fact-checkers are at forefront of fighting against false information, but manually verifying every fact is time-consuming at best and nearly impossible in the age of COVID-19. So Kumar and School of Computer Science Professor \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cc.gatech.edu\/~mustaq\/#biography\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EMustque Ahamad\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E are building data-driven, secure solutions for fact checking.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EA Next-Generation Solution\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EKumar and Ahamad are a well-matched team. In his past cybersecurity research, Ahamad has worked with professional fact-checkers to determine what they need to complete their work at news organizations. Kumar, for his part, has been building ML and data-driven tools to detect disinformation. COVID-19 seemed like a natural pairing for the two.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Together, we started collaborating to build the next generation of data-driven and security-minded solutions for effective fact checking,\u0026rdquo; Kumar said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir solution is to do early detection of disinformation before it even gets to the fact-checkers. With this in mind, they plan to develop ML techniques to remove deliberately misleading information from the news.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETheir ML models will be able to learn the difference between true versus false information with only a few training data points.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our models will triage the cases that are most likely to be false in order of their impact on the readers,\u0026rdquo; Kumar said.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EThe models will also be customizable to the individual fact-checker\u0026rsquo;s topical, geographical, and language preferences. As the project develops, Kumar and Ahamad will collaborate with professional fact-checkers to ensure the models are effective throughout the research.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u0026ldquo;Our framework will bring together a one-stop-shop for group of fact checkers to collaboratively identify false information,\u0026rdquo; Kumar said. \u0026ldquo;This information can then be shipped to appropriate stakeholders, so that the readers can be appropriately alerted when they view it and the hoaxes can be\u0026nbsp;removed from social media circulation.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EFor more coverage of Georgia Tech\u0026rsquo;s response to the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/helpingstories.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EResponding to COVID-19 page\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"To ensure Americans can find the most accurate information, College of Computing researchers are creating machine-learning (ML) and data science tools to help fact-checkers be more efficient."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2020-05-26 20:39:52","changed_gmt":"2020-06-04 13:08:20","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2020-05-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2020-05-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"635701":{"id":"635701","type":"image","title":"Disinformation","body":null,"created":"1590526655","gmt_created":"2020-05-26 20:57:35","changed":"1590526655","gmt_changed":"2020-05-26 20:57:35","alt":"","file":{"fid":"241879","name":"magnifier-424566_1280.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/magnifier-424566_1280.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/magnifier-424566_1280.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":274329,"path_740":"http:\/\/www.tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/magnifier-424566_1280.jpg?itok=yIO7uL3K"}}},"media_ids":["635701"],"groups":[{"id":"47223","name":"College of Computing"},{"id":"50877","name":"School of Computational Science and Engineering"},{"id":"50875","name":"School of Computer Science"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[{"id":"145171","name":"Cybersecurity"}],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Communications Officer\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:tess.malone@cc.gatech.edu\u0022\u003Etess.malone@cc.gatech.edu\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}