Ein hybrider KI-Ansatz zur Interpretation wissenschaftlicher Online-Diskurse (AI4SCI)

Scientific

findings form a central part of public discourse on the web and in social

media, e.g., in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, due to the

inherent complexity of scientific statements, as well as the inherent

mechanisms of AI-driven online platforms where controversial or false

statements have been shown to generate more interactions and interest,

scientific evidence is often presented in simplified, decontextualized, and

misleading ways. Recent examples include statements about vaccine risks or

COVID19 mortality, which have often been presented in truncated or misleading

ways on the web.

AI4Sci

addresses the challenge of developing hybrid artificial intelligence (AI)

methods for detecting and interpreting scientific claims in large datasets from

online discourse, and thus countering disinformation in the context of science

communication. To this end, the project builds on advances in areas such as

deep learning, natural language processing, and knowledge graphs, and will

develop methods to detect, for example, the quality, correctness, or

completeness of scientific claims in social media or on news sites by

establishing and using relationships between claims and their primary

scientific sources.

This

creates tools for tracking scientific findings in online discourse and

detecting misinformation to improve public discourse and understanding of

complex scientific issues, thereby exerting a democracy-enhancing influence on

online communication. AI4Sci's hybrid methodology will also contribute to

important challenges in AI, such as transparency and reproducibility of AI

models. As part of an international collaboration between GESIS (Germany) and

LIRMM (France) and with the involvement of regional institutions such as the

Heine Center for Artifical Intelligence and Data Science (HeiCAD) at HHU

Düsseldorf, a regional, internationally networked hub for AI methods for the

use and analysis of online discourse will be established, thus strengthening

Germany as an international hub for AI research.