[PlanetKR] Open PhD position -- Natural Language Counter-argumentation Against Online Disinformation -- Université Côte d’Azur

[Serena Villata]

Open PhD Position at Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, Inria, I3S, France on Natural Language Counter-argumentation Against Online Disinformation

-- Context --
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. 

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. 

The PhD position (3 years) is funded by the ANR project ATTENTION “Generating Counter Arguments to Fight Disinformation on the Web”.

-- Research fields --
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Machine Learning

-- Keywords --
Natural Language Processing, Fake News, Argument Mining, Counter-argumentation, Natural Language Generation

-- Research group --
WIMMICS (http://wimmics.inria.fr/ <http://wimmics.inria.fr/>) 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.

-- Candidate profile --
• Master degree in Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Computer Science or Computational Linguistics is required.
• Programming skills are required.
• Knowledge of Natural Language Processing and Argumentation is preferred.
• Fluent English required, both oral and written. French is appreciated but not mandatory.

-- Application process --
Apply by sending an email directly to the supervisors (Elena Cabrio <elena.cabrio at univ-cotedazur.fr <mailto:elena.cabrio at univ-cotedazur.fr>> and Serena Villata <serena.villata at univ-cotedazur.fr <mailto:serena.villata at univ-cotedazur.fr>>).

Deadline for applications: *** March 4th, 2022 ***

The application must include:
- Curriculum vitæ.
- Motivation Letter.
- Academic transcripts of a master’s degree(s) or equivalent.
- At least one letter of recommendation
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