COSMOS director Prof. Nitin Agarwal was hosted this last November by NewsWise on the podcast “Curious by Nature.” In the interview, Prof. Agarwal described the work COSMOS is doing to mitigate misinformation, disinformation, and other kinds of cognitive threats.
Prof. Agarwal discussed the scope and impact of COSMOS, emphasizing its mission to address such issues. “We are attacking the problems that confront us today in terms of misinformation, disinformation, and cognitive threats from a multidisciplinary and a multi-regional, multicultural perspective,” he said. “Due to the low-cost and low-risk nature of these cognitive threats, our leaders can expect to encounter an increased amount of adversary-generated AI-amplified social media-driven propaganda.”
Prof. Agarwal also highlighted the dual nature of social media, noting its potential for positive social transformation, such as its role in the Saudi Arabian Women’s Right to Drive movement. However, he also underscored the darker side, including the spread of toxicity, bullying, and false narratives. “During COVID-19, when we were working with the Arkansas Attorney General’s office, we saw how misinformed narratives—about vaccines, masks, quarantines, and various other non-pharmaceutical measures—were pushed in these platforms; such things without any scientific evidence can really have damaging effects and life-threatening impacts on society,” Prof. Agarwal explains. “Not only that but we have seen marginalized communities, like the Uighur-Muslim communities in China’s Xinjiang region, that have also been the targets of such disinformation campaigns. And that impacts their livelihoods. . . how they’re seen in the society.” He also identified pro-Russian and pro-Chinese sources as key propagators of disinformation and described how these narratives are tailored to destabilize democratic processes and social cohesion globally.
Among COSMOS’s innovative approaches are studies on coordinated disinformation campaigns, modeling toxic information flows, and detecting suspicious online behaviors, such as orchestrated comments and inorganic growth on platforms like YouTube. Prof. Agarwal concluded by emphasizing the importance of leveraging research to make social media platforms safer and to mitigate cognitive threats. “We are digging one step further: how to solve this problem. We look at how these false narratives or toxicity spreads and what type of things can be done so that we can stem their flow—whether it is through epidemiological modeling, more advanced social network analysis, or AI-based models – fighting fire with fire!” He called for collaborative efforts in education, policy-making, and scientific applications to promote the positive potential of digital technologies for society.
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In NewsWise’s “Curious by Nature” podcast, listeners can listen to scientific experts to discover the knowledge that comes with years of dedicated study within various fields. To hear the full podcast episode with Prof. Agarwal, visit here.