I teach a course on the relationship between social media and society at Durham College. As part of their assessments, I ask my students to reflect on their social media use. A recurring theme is that they cannot be separated from their smartphones. Many admit to spending significant time daily on social media watching short videos without […] … learn more→

Have we tried everything to tackle the climate crisis? At least one simple idea has hardly been explored: prioritizing climate content on social media. The climate crisis is seriously aggravated by a lack of attention, including in the recent United States presidential election campaign. But algorithmic recommenders could help, as they are responsible for a significant […] … learn more→

AI, the web, social networks and more generally digital technologies are transforming society, for the better, but also for the worse. They facilitate daily activities for searching for information or writing texts, automate painful or tedious tasks. They also contribute to the progress of knowledge in science, health or space. On the risk side, we can fear […] … learn more→

AI has made it easier than ever to find information: Ask ChatGPT almost anything, and the system swiftly delivers an answer. But the large language models that power popular tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic’s Claude were not designed to be accurate or factual. They regularly “hallucinate” and offer up falsehoods as if they were hard facts. […] … learn more→

Can artificial intelligence (AI) be manipulated to do the opposite of what it was designed to do? That’s the goal of adversarial learning , a discipline that explores both the vulnerabilities of AI models and how to defend against them. From bypassing a spam filter to evading facial recognition, examples abound. But what are these attacks targeting […] … learn more→

Title of course: “STEM & Social Impact: Climate Change” What prompted the idea for the course? Harvey Mudd College’s mission is to educate STEM students – short for science, technology, engineering and math – so they have a “clear understanding of the impact of their work on society.” But the “impact” part of our mission has […] … learn more→

The digital sector represents 4.4% of France’s carbon footprint: this is the figure revealed in the latest opinion from the Agency for Ecological Transition (ADEME), published on January 9. It thus revises upwards the 2018 estimate of 2.5%, which did not take into account data centers located outside the country and which fuel the digital uses of […] … learn more→

One of the unfortunate legacies that my generation, gen X, has passed on to the millennials and gen Z, is the idea that therapy has no side effects. However, just like many other medical treatments, there can be negative effects. For example, in some cases psychotherapy can be linked with a worsening of psychiatric symptoms, increased anxiety and false memories. My team’s recent paper investigated the […] … learn more→

Consent education has been mandatory in Australian schools since 2023. Amid growing public understanding we need to reduce sexual violence and teach young people about healthy relationships, consent is now part of the national curriculum until Year 10. But is this education working? Our research with teens suggest some young people are not coming away with an adequate understanding of consent […] … learn more→

Whether you are a student or a parent, at school or university, a child or an adult, you have probably already experienced this frustrating situation: hours of intense revision followed by an inexplicable blackout on the day of the exam. This (discouraging) experience is not inevitable. Your brain is not failing, it may just be […] … learn more→