Prof. Nitin Agarwal, Founding Director of the COSMOS Research Center and Maulden-Entergy Chair and Donaghey Distinguished Professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, delivered an invited talk titled “AI + Social Computing for Mitigating Cognitive Threats” during the WVAR-CRESH: 2025 NSF Workshop on AI and Digital Health held at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia, from July 21 – 23, 2025.

In his presentation, Prof. Agarwal examined the intersection of artificial intelligence and social computing to address the growing challenge of cognitive threats, especially in the healthcare domain. He discussed how information campaigns and manipulative tactics spread swiftly across digital platforms, eroding trust, disrupting decision-making, and threatening societal cohesion in our digital health communities. Drawing on advanced AI models, network analysis, and computational social science methods, he demonstrated effective strategies for identifying, analyzing, and mitigating these threats.

The talk fostered engaging discussions among attendees representing diverse disciplines, including computer science, digital health, biomedical informatics, and data science. Prof. Agarwal emphasized the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration in developing AI systems that are not only innovative but also ethical, transparent, and resilient against adversarial exploitation. His insights underscored the critical balance between technological advancement and social responsibility.

His invited address further underscored COSMOS’s leadership in advancing research on social computing and cognitive security. By engaging with scholars, students, and practitioners at the NSF workshop, Prof. Agarwal contributed to shaping cross-disciplinary dialogue at the intersection of AI, digital health, and bio-inspired machine learning. His participation reinforced the COSMOS mission of developing innovative, interdisciplinary solutions to safeguard societies in the digital era.