Fernando P. Santos
Associate Professor, University of Amsterdam
Talk recording
Online social networks are increasingly central in shaping human beliefs and behavior. These are also prime spaces where humans co-exist with AI: algorithms to personalize contents and provide recommendations are pervasive in online platforms. Link recommendation algorithms are implemented to recommend new connections to online platforms users, based on supposed familiarity, similar interests, or the potential to serve as a source of useful information. These algorithms influence the evolution of social networks’ topology, yet their long-term impacts on human social dynamics remain unclear. In this talk, I will discuss models to study such effects. I will discuss how algorithmic link recommendations interplay with opinion dynamics, and the potential long-term impacts of such algorithms on polarization. I will also discuss how such algorithms impact the visibility of minority groups and adaptations to restore fair recommendations.
About the speaker
Fernando P. Santos is an Associate Professor at the University of Amsterdam. He is a member of the Socially Intelligent Artificial Systems group, where he leads the Prosocial Dynamics Lab. Fernando’s research lies at the interface of AI and Complex Systems: he is interested in understanding behavioral dynamics in systems of adaptive learning agents and designing prosocial/fair AI. Previously, Fernando was a James S. McDonnell Postdoctoral Fellow at Princeton University with Simon A. Levin. He completed his PhD in Computer Science and Engineering at Instituto Superior Técnico (University of Lisbon) with Francisco C. Santos, Jorge M. Pacheco, and Ana Paiva. Recently he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant to study the impact of link-recommendation algorithms in online social networks and human behavioral dynamics.
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