About the Conference
Propaganda, hate speech, misinformation, manipulation, and electoral influence have persisted for years. These problems can take on new forms as generative AI and extended reality technologies increase and become more accessible. This international and interdisciplinary conference aims to explore how emerging technologies can generate propaganda in new ways as well as reinscribe propaganda in older, more familiar ways. We will collectively think of ways to handle these problems from local and global perspectives. The goal of the conference is to help lawyers, academics, policy makers, and media companies anticipate and prepare for a new wave of propaganda through technologies that operate using AI.
Agenda
Friday, April 5
The schedule is subject to change.
8.30am – 9.00am (30 mins): Registration [Room 122] and Continental Breakfast [Dining Hall]
9.00am – 9.15am: (15 mins): Welcome/Opening Remarks [Room 120-webinar]
9.15am – 10.45am (90 mins): Plenary I: Propaganda [Room 120 -webinar]
Jason Stanley, Yale Law School, USA
Renee DiResta, Stanford University, USA
Nicole Curato, University of Canberra, Australia
Moderator: Jack Balkin, Yale Law School, USA
10.45am – 11.00am (15 mins): Coffee Break [Room 122]
11.00am – 12.30pm (90 mins): Paper Presentations/Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 1: Propaganda's Effects: Gender, Sexuality, and Rurality [Room 120 -webinar]
Walker Brewer: Northwestern University, USA
“Emerging Technologies and the Global Coordination of Misinformation: Unpacking the Transatlantic Flow of Anti-Transgender Disinformation between the US and the UK”
Bizaa Zeynab Ali, NYU / The New School for Social Research, USA
“AI as Fake News and Other Perils of Generative AI in Pakistan’s Digital Sphere”
Kiran Garimella, Rutgers University, USA
“The Role of Generative AI in Shaping Political Discourse on WhatsApp in India”
Moderator: Dhanaraj Thakur, Research Director at the Center for Democracy & Technology
Breakout Session 2: Emerging Forms of Propaganda in Elections [Auditorium -webinar]
Carlos Affonso Souza, Rio de Janeiro State University (UERJ), Brazil
“The Storm After the Storm: Lessons from the contentious debate over Internet regulation and propaganda in Brazil after the Bolsonaro years”
Grant Fergusson, Ben Winters and Calli Schroeder, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), USA
“Election Information Avengers: A Taxonomy of AI Election Harms and the U.S. Actors that Can Remedy Them”
Sinta Dewi Rosadi: University of Padjadjaran, Indonesia
“The impact of the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on black campaigns in Indonesia's general elections”
Moderator: Paolo Tamase, University of the Philippines (U.P.) College of Law, Philippines
12.30pm – 2.30pm (2 hours): Lunch [Dining Hall]
2.30pm – 4.00 pm (90 mins): Paper Presentations/Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 3: Information Warfare and Threat to Democracy [Room 120 - This panel will not be streamed]
Nuurrianti Jalli, Oklahoma State University, USA
“AI-Driven information warfare in Southeast Asia: Exploring propaganda, dis/information, and policy readiness in Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines”
Ignacio Cofone, McGill University, Canada
“Obliviousness to generative AI is the biggest threat to democracy”
Nathalie A. Smuha, NYU School of Law/KU Leuven Faculty of Law, USA/Belgium
“Drafting, thinking, feeling: what we delegate to generative AI, and how this threatens democracy”
Moderator: Chinmayi Arun, Yale Law School, USA
Breakout Session 4: Methods of Persuasion [Room 128 - This panel with not be streamed]
Judith Pintar, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, USA
“Automated Persuasions: Reconsidering the power of suggestion in the era of AI”
Inga Kristina Trauthig, Gabrielle D Beacken, and Samuel Woolley, The University of Texas at Austin, USA
“Backsliding Democracies: How Emerging Technologies Aid Autocratic Propaganda”
Moderator: Mason Marks, Harvard University, USA
Saturday, April 6
8.30am – 9.00am (30 mins): Breakfast [Dining Hall]
9.00am – 10.30am (90 mins): Paper Presentations/Breakout Sessions
Breakout Session 5: Content Moderation [Room 127 -webinar]
Endalkachew Chala, Hamline University, USA
“Digital Disinformation Dynamics in Ethiopia: Social Media, Political Manipulation, and the Challenges of Content Moderation”
Sarah Fisher and Jeffrey Howard, University College London / Oxford University, UK
“Moderating Misinformation: The Challenge of Generative AI”
Yohannes Eneyew Ayalew, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
“Blind spots in Platform Content Moderation in Ethiopia”
Moderator: Akriti Gaur, Yale Law School, USA
Breakout Session 6: Mis/Disinformation and Trust [Room 128 -webinar]
David Nemer, University of Virginia, USA
“The Human Infrastructure of Misinformation: A Case Study of Brazil’s Heteromated Labor”
Agustina Del Campo, Center for Studies on Freedom of Expression CELE, Argentina
“Disinformation: Intermediary institutions under the magnifying glass.”
Claudia Haupt and Mason Marks, Yale Law School and Florida State University, USA
“Generating Medical Misinformation: How the FTC Should Regulate Dr. DALL·E and ChatGPT, MD” -- this talk will not be streamed
Moderator: Michael (Mikey) McGovern, Yale Law School, USA
10.30am –10.45am: Coffee Break [Room 122]
10.45am –12.15pm (90 mins): Plenary Session II: Regulating Propaganda [Room 127-webinar]
Michael Karanicolas, UCLA Institute for Technology, Law & Policy, USA
“Combatting Metaganda”
Mihir Kshirsagar and Surya Mattu, Princeton University, USA
“Whatsapp Watch: Regulating Political Speech On Private Social Networks” -- this talk will not be streamed
Siddharth Narrain, Adelaide Law School, Australia
“Online Propaganda and the Regulation of Hate Speech on Facebook in Contemporary India” -- this talk will not be streamed
Moderator: Nga Phan, Yale Law School, USA
12.15pm – 12.30pm: (15 mins): Break / Collect Lunch [Dining Hall]
12.30pm – 2.00pm (90 mins): Plenary III: New Forms of Simulation [Room 127-webinar]
Tiffany Li, University of San Francisco School of Law, USA
“Personalized Propaganda”
Madelyne Xiao, Princeton University. USA
“The Challenges of Machine Learning for Trust and Safety: A Case Study on Misinformation Detection”
Bao Kham Chau, Cornell Tech, USA
“Audio Deepfakes and the Regulation of the Landlords of Creativity”
Moderator: Salwa Hoque, Yale Law School, USA
2.00pm – 2.15pm: Closing