The Philosophy Department invites everyone to a colloquium talk by Adrian K. Yee, Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Co-Director of MA in Artificial Intelligence & the Future at Lingnan University.

The talk is titled "The Limits of Machine Learning Models of Misinformation."

Abstract: Judgments of misinformation are made relative to the epistemic preferences of the communities making them and their respective standards for informational quality. However, both standards and first-order judgments change over time, inducing distribution shifts that pose considerable challenges regarding the empirical adequacy of extant machine learning models of misinformation. Three solutions for enhancing empirical adequacy are discussed: larger training sets, social engineering, and dynamic sampling. I argue that given the idiosyncratic ontology of misinformation, the first option is inadequate, the second is unethical, and thus the third is superior. Despite this solution, I conclude that the prospects for a rigorous science of misinformation are weak, and far weaker than most have presupposed, given that both epistemic and non-epistemic values are difficult to operationalize dynamically in machine code.

Date: 27 May
Time: 14:00 to 16:00
Location: AC04 LR 409
Google Calendar Event Link

For questions please contact danny.weltman@ashoka.edu.in