Ai Literacy Lab Internet Democracy Initiative Northeastern University

Promoting an informed society around the uses and consequences of artificial intelligence. We study the intersection of media and AI. The AI Literacy Lab, part of the Internet Democracy Initiative at Northeastern University, is a center for thinking, collaboration, and insight on communication in the age of AI. Our leaders are media, computational social science, and computer science faculty, working alongside media practitioners. Our research relates to public understanding of new media and AI-driven technologies, and the factors that contribute to public knowledge. We want to bring scholars, journalists, and technologists together to understand the implications of new technology, communicate the work of technology development, and promote the responsible use of AI.

Our mission is to foster a well-informed global society that is equipped to grapple with the promise and pitfalls of emerging technology — and to use AI in the service of democracy. Promoting an informed society around the uses and consequences of artificial intelligence. We study the intersection of media and AI. The AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University, affiliated with both the School of Journalism & Media Innovation and the Internet Democracy Initiative, is a project focusing on media and public knowledge relating to artificial... Our goal is to foster a well-informed global society that can grapple with the promise, pitfalls, and consequences of emerging technology. If you’re a technologist in search of mission-driven projects, a journalist looking for guidance about AI, or a global citizen interested in using technology to enhance communication and democracy, please reach out — we...

The 2024 Computation + Journalism Symposium at Northeastern University We are studying how the story of AI is communicated through news and social media, as well as how public opinion is being shaped. We are analyzing knowledge levels as well as worries, concerns, and expectations. We will continue to field surveys and polls, in partnership with a variety of stakeholders. We are also implementing curricula and planning to partner with newsrooms and civic groups to do both trainings and workshops, as well as build networks that can provide support and capacity around emerging AI... The use of AI to facilitate news media work, particularly around open source investigations (OSI), is also an area of interest and activity.

Enter your email address to be the first to find out about news and programming from the AI Literacy Lab. This form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. The Internet Democracy Initiative studies problems that have widespread information and social media implications. This initiative provides leadership in understanding the role of the internet in structuring democracy, society, and markets. How can the internet be a constructive force in society? The early days of the internet offered the promise of decentralized democratic transformation, social connection, easy access to high quality information, and a platform to diverse voices.

While there are glimpses of these possibilities still, the internet today is strikingly centralized and dominated by relatively few gatekeepers, with society riven by polarization. The bottom-up utopian vision of the 1990s has seemingly turned into a 2020s dystopia of misinformation and harassment, producing calls for aggressive top-down control by corporations and government. The objective of this initiative is to support rigorous research on the problems of the contemporary information ecosystem, and to evaluate the potential of interventions into and uses of the affordances of the internet... The 50-state report, published as part of the multiuniversity Civic Health and Institutions Project (CHIP50), found that views about how and whether to rein in AI tools don’t follow typical red-blue state divides. Missouri and Washington, for example, expressed the strongest views about a lack of regulatory oversight, while New York and Tennessee were most worried about government overreach. Featuring David Lazer, John Wihbey and Hong Qu

The AI-Media Strategies Lab – AIMES Lab – focuses on the use of AI technologies in media industries, providing evidence-based recommendations to organizations, and producing research leveraging methods such as surveys, focus groups, experiments,... The Lab’s Director is Dr. John Wihbey, associate professor of media innovation and technology at Northeastern University and a consultant and analyst. His graduate-level course “AI in Media Industries” will run in Spring 2025. AIMES seeks to partner with and advise organizations on using AI tools to accomplish their media-related goals, in areas such as news, communications, social media, public relations, advocacy, and more. The Lab seeks to learn from external organizations and consolidate knowledge about the state of the art (applied research), as well as produce more basic research about AI technologies and their uses and perceptions...

AIMES looks to be an educational bridge as the media and communications workforce adapts to a new technological paradigm. The research goals of the AIMES Lab are: AI and Epistemic Risk for Democracy: A Coming Crisis of Public Knowledge? Prof. John Wihbey explores fundamental risks to democracy that recent AI innovations may pose, and how to incorporate ethical and responsible approaches to safeguard the value of human judgement. “The norms of the traditional, human news business dictate crisp, definitive accounts of human actions, events, and views – blaring headlines and simple, condensed summaries that attempt to declare empirical truth and certain judgment.

Should AI attempt to mimic such norms?” A team of School of Journalism researchers used AI to analyze news in ways never before possible at scale, measuring who was being quoted in news in order to assess the variety of voices... “This paper presents an experimental case study utilizing machine learning and generative AI to audit content diversity in a hyperlocal news outlet, The Scope, based at a university and focused on underrepresented communities in... While understanding how social media algorithms operate is essential to protect oneself from misinformation, such understanding is often unevenly distributed. This study explores the algorithmic knowledge gap both within and between countries, using national surveys in the United States (N = 1,415), the United Kingdom (N = 1,435), South Korea (N = 1,798), and... In all countries, algorithmic knowledge varied across different sociodemographic factors, even though in different ways.

Also, different countries had different levels of algorithmic knowledge: The respondents in the United States reported the greatest algorithmic knowledge, followed by respondents in the United Kingdom, Mexico, and South Korea. Additionally, individuals with greater algorithmic knowledge were more inclined to take actions against misinformation. Researchers and the media have highlighted the potential adverse effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on the 2024 US presidential election. To measure baseline public perceptions of this issue going into the election, this study surveyed 1,001 Americans and found that four out of five expressed concerns about the use of AI to spread election... Further analysis shows that direct interactions with Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and DALL-E have a negligible impact on alleviating these concerns. Education levels and work experiences in STEM fields also showed no significant associations with concern levels.

In contrast, learning about AI through news, particularly TV programs, significantly correlates with increased concern. The results suggest that more ubiquitous use of the tools will not necessarily make the public more critical of AI misinformation risk; rather, the data point to the vital role news will play in... In the year since the release of ChatGPT, the volume of news and information about artificial intelligence has skyrocketed. AI dominates headlines in traditional media and fills social media chatter. It’s the subject of podcasts, TikToks, and YouTube videos, highlighting deep dangers and broad promises. What are people taking away from these stories, and how does that connect with reality?

The AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University was launched to advance the public’s understanding of artificial intelligence. Our goal is to help people transcend the hype, exuberance, and fear and embark on meaningful discussions about managing and integrating this new technology into society. To encourage responsible conversations about AI in the future, we need to understand the current state of the conversation. We conducted a poll of 1,000 Americans 18 and older to gauge their feelings and attitudes about AI. We found that AI has caught the public’s attention — more than three-quarters of Americans consume news about it at least weekly — and created a deep sense of caution and skepticism. Our survey also pinpointed some demographic factors that affect people’s attitudes toward AI.

People with STEM experience are more likely to feel optimistic about the technology, suggesting that more technical knowledge could diminish anxiety and prompt more nuanced discussions. Women are more likely than men to be skeptical of AI and its stewards, raising questions about whether some uses of AI seem disproportionately harmful to children and families. Northeastern believes in the power of AI-human collaboration. We’re notonly using AI to advance groundbreaking research, but also to help develop frameworks, policies, and practices for deploying AI responsibly. Robotics, Control, and Dynamical Systems Scalable Systems andHigh Performance Computing

Scalable Systems andHigh Performance Computing Advancing artificial intelligence means applying the latest research to real-world challenges. Our teams of AI pioneers, leading data scientists, and renowned faculty work together at our institutes to help meet the world’s most crucial needs with AI. Each project outlines the problem the client faced and a full explanation of how you went about solving it. Use each of these sections to highlight on focused points of this support offering that your business unit offers. This could be in-depth details on what it means for the audience or what you want them to know before reaching out regarding this topic.

Use each of these sections to highlight on focused points of this support offering that your business unit offers. This could be in-depth details on what it means for the audience or what you want them to know before reaching out regarding this topic. Use each of these sections to highlight on focused points of this support offering that your business unit offers. This could be in-depth details on what it means for the audience or what you want them to know before reaching out regarding this topic. Use each of these sections to highlight on focused points of this support offering that your business unit offers. This could be in-depth details on what it means for the audience or what you want them to know before reaching out regarding this topic.

The IDI leverages Northeastern’s cross-disciplinary network of experts to form a truly future-focused and diverse ecosystem of partners. The Internet Democracy Initiative is supported by the Office of the Provost and the John S. and James. L Knight Foundation. The National Internet Observatory aims to help researchers understand how people behave online and how platforms structure what people see. Read More >>

The Center for Law, Information and Creativity (CLIC) combines the study of innovation and creativity with the School of Law’s social justice mission. Read More >> The Center for Communication, Media Innovation & Social Change is a hub for the study of race, ethnicity, and activism. Read More >>

People Also Search

• AI Literacy Lab | Internet Democracy Initiative - Northeastern University
• AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University
• Programs - AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University
• Internet Democracy Initiative | Northeastern University
• AIMES Lab | Internet Democracy Initiative
• AI and Journalism - College of Arts, Media and Design (CAMD)
• Publications from the lab - AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University
• AI Research & Innovation | Northeastern University
• Support - AI Literacy Lab at Northeastern University
• Network Partners | Internet Democracy Initiative - Northeastern University