How statistics can aid in the fight against misinformation: Machine learning model detects misinformation, is inexpensive and is transparent

With the use of algorithms and computer models, machine learning is increasingly playing a role in helping to stop the spread of misinformation, but a main challenge for scientists is the black box of unknowability, where researchers don't understand how the machine arrives at the same decision as human trainers. Using a Twitter dataset with misinformation tweets about COVID-19, Zois Boukouvalas, assistant professor in AU's Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Arts and Sciences, shows how statistical models can detect misinformation in social media during events like a pandemic or a natural disaster. In newly published research, Boukouvalas and his colleagues, including AU student Caitlin Moroney and Computer Science Prof. Nathalie Japkowicz, also show how the model's decisions align with those made by humans. "We would like to know what a machine is thinking when it makes decisions, and how and why it agrees with the humans that trained it," Boukouvalas said. "We don't want to block someone's social media account because the model makes a biased decision."