With the availability of large datasets and ever-increasing computing power, there has been a growing use of data-driven Artificial Intelligence systems, which have shown their potential for successful application in diverse domains related to social platforms. However, many of these systems are not able to provide information about the rationale behind their decisions to their users. Lack of understanding of such decisions can be a major drawback, especially in critical domains such as those related to cybersecurity, of which malicious behavior in social platforms is a clear example. This phenomenon has many faces, which for instance appear in the form of bots, sock puppets, creation and dissemination of fake news, Sybil attacks, and actors hiding behind multiple identities. In this talk, we discuss  HEIST (Hybrid Explainable and Interpretable Socio-Technical systems), a framework for the implementation of intelligent socio-technical systems that are explainable by design, and study an instantiation for analysis of fake news dissemination.

Dr. Maria Vanina Martinez obtained her PhD at University of Maryland College Park and pursued her postdoctoral studies  at Oxford University in the Information Systems Group in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Database Theory. Currently, she is an adjunct researcher at CONICET as a member of the Institute for Research in Computer Science (ICC, UBA - CONICET) and an assistant professor at the Department of Computer Science at University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2018 was selected by IEEE Intelligent Systems as one of the ten prominent researchers in AI to watch. In 2021 he received the National Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences Stimulus Award in the area of Engineering Sciences in Argentina. Her research is in the area of knowledge representation and reasoning, with a focus on the formalization of knowledge dynamics, the management of inconsistency and uncertainty, and the study of the ethical and social impact on the development and use of systems based on Artificial Intelligence.

She is a member of the ethics committee of the Ministry of Science and Technology, has participated in various international events organized, among others, by UNESCO, UNIDIR, Pugwash, Sehlac (Human Security in Latin America and the Caribbean), the Campaign to stop killer robots, speaking about the benefits and challenges involved in the advancement of Artificial Intelligence.