CS Seminar: Tiziano Piccardi

Description

Tiziano Piccardi, a postdoctoral scholar in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University, will give a talk titled "Tuning Our Algorithmic Amplifiers: Embedding Pro-Social Values into Online Platforms" for the Department of Computer Science.

Refreshments will be available beginning at 10:30 a.m. The seminar will begin at 10:45 a.m.

Abstract:

The design of online platforms plays a critical role in shaping public discourse—yet these same platforms can unintentionally contribute to misinformation, polarization, and social harm. Tiziano Piccardi's research investigates how to reorient these platforms toward positive societal outcomes by re-imagining the algorithmic and design principles at their core. In this talk, Piccardi will present artificial intelligence (AI)–driven designs that (1) reduce the harmful societal effects of social media and (2) enhance the reliability of open knowledge platforms like Wikipedia. He will introduce a framework for running large-scale algorithmic reranking field experiments without platform collaboration and share results from a large-scale experiment on X (formerly Twitter), where a large language model-based system reranked feeds in real-time to mitigate political polarization. Piccardi will then discuss tools and studies that have shaped Wikipedia's design, reinforcing its role as the world's largest online encyclopedia and a trusted global information source accessed by millions daily. By translating research into deployable tools and real-world applications, Piccardi's work demonstrates how embedding societal values into platform design can foster healthier online information environments.