Bots, Bias, and Influence

Lynnette Hui Xian Ng (PhD, Carnegie Mellon University (USA)) obtained her PhD in Societal Computing, School of Computer Science. As a researcher in the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS) and a Knight Fellow at the Center for Informed Democracy and Social Cybersecurity (IDeaS), her research examines the automated and inauthentic behavior of social media bots. Her current work blends social psychology, network science and computer science techniques to profile the network and engagement impact of the behavioral techniques applied by different bot personas. Her work has been published in prestigious venues and won several Best Paper Awards at leading journals and conferences. This book was primarily written and illustrated by her.Kathleen M. Carley (HD, University of Zurich (Switzerland), PhD, Harvard (USA), SB, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA)) is a Professor of Societal Computing, Institute for Software Research, Carnegie-Mellon University; Director of the Center for Computational Analysis of Social and Organizational Systems (CASOS); Director of the Center for Informed Democracy and Social Cybersecurity (IDeaS); and CEO of Netanomics. Her research blends computer science and social science to address complex real-world issues such as social cybersecurity, disinformation, disease contagion, disaster response, and terrorism from a high dimensional network analytic, machine learning, and natural language processing perspective. This book was conceptualized, organized and edited by her.