<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">Open PhD Position at Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Inria, I3S, France on Natural Language Counter-argumentation Against Online Disinformation</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Context --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">Online social media platforms try to limit the virality of disinformation spread for example through content moderation. While these measures show some kind of effectiveness in limiting the diffusion of misleading or fake information, one big issue still remains unsolved: identifying disinformation and reporting its status to the users is not enough to counter it. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">The goal of the PhD program is to address that urgent need by designing intelligent (semi-)automated ways to generate counter-arguments to fight the spread of disinformation online. The idea is to avoid the undesired effects that come with content moderation, such as overblocking, when dealing with disinformation online, and to directly intervene in the discussion (e.g., Twitter threads) with textual arguments that are meant to counter the fake content as soon as possible, and prevent it from further spreading. The idea is to obtain high quality counter-arguments while reducing efforts and supporting human fact-checkers in their everyday activities. </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">The PhD position (3 years) is funded by the ANR project ATTENTION “Generating Counter Arguments to Fight Disinformation on the Web”.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Research fields --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Machine Learning</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Keywords --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">Natural Language Processing, Fake News, Argument Mining, Counter-argumentation, Natural Language Generation</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Research group --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">WIMMICS (<a href="http://wimmics.inria.fr/" class=""><span style="color: rgb(220, 161, 13);" class="">http://wimmics.inria.fr/</span></a>) is a research team of Université Côte d’Azur (UCA), Inria, CNRS. The research fields of the team are graph-oriented knowledge representation, reasoning and operationalization to model and support actors, actions and interactions in web-based epistemic communities.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><b class=""><br class=""></b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Candidate profile --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">• Master degree in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science or Computational Linguistics is required.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">• Programming skills are required.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">• Knowledge of Natural Language Processing and Argumentation is preferred.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">• Fluent English required, both oral and written. French is appreciated but not mandatory.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">-- Application process --</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">Apply by sending an email directly to the supervisors (Elena Cabrio <<a href="mailto:elena.cabrio@univ-cotedazur.fr" class=""><span style="color: rgb(220, 161, 13);" class="">elena.cabrio@univ-cotedazur.fr</span></a>> and Serena Villata <<a href="mailto:serena.villata@univ-cotedazur.fr" class=""><span style="color: rgb(220, 161, 13);" class="">serena.villata@univ-cotedazur.fr</span></a>>).</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class=""><b class="">Deadline for applications: *** March 4th, 2022 ***</b></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; min-height: 15px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">The application must include:</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">- Curriculum vitæ.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">- Motivation Letter.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">- Academic transcripts of a master’s degree(s) or equivalent.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 13px; line-height: normal; font-family: "Helvetica Neue";" class="">- At least one letter of recommendation</div></body></html>