AI Tools and Research Methods for Social and Behavioral Science Symposium
The Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy hosted a summet on the use of AI technologies in research and scholarship. This event included a keynote talk by Chris Bail and lightning talks on novel uses for artificial intelligence in social science research. Recordings from both the keynote and lightning talks can be found here.
This event occured on
January 30, 2026
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The Institute for Information, the Internet and Democracy hosted a summet on the use of AI technologies in research and scholarship. This event included a keynote talk by Chris Bail and lightning talks on novel uses for artificial intelligence in social science research. Recordings from both the keynote and lightning talks can be found here.
Keynote Speaker
Chris Bail
Director of the Society-Centered AI Initiative, Duke University
Chris Bail is the director of the Society-Centered AI Initiative and co-director of the Polarization Lab at Duke University. His research centers around the impact of artificial intelligence on human behavior, with a specific focus on social media. His current work aims to create frameworks to effectively use large-language models within computational social science research.
Bail’s work in human-AI interaction has influenced a variety of changes in the social sphere, from influencing new policies to combat polarization and misinformation on Twitter to inspiring new products for AI-assisted conflict media on NextDoor.
Featured Publication: Bail, Christopher A. "Can Generative AI improve social science?." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, no. 21 (2024): e2314021121.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2314021121
Featured Speakers
 | John BaslAssociate Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Basl, John, and David G. Grant. "Explainability in Algorithmic Decision Systems." A Companion to Applied Philosophy of AI (2025): 82-103. |
 | Rupal PatelProfessor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Patel, Rupal. "Voice Tech: Generating and Understanding the Sound of Health." Leader Live (2025). |
 | Nick BeauchampAssociate Professor of Political Science, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Zhang, Xinliang Frederick, Nick Beauchamp, and Lu Wang. "Prime: Large language model personalization with cognitive dual-memory and personalized thought process." In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing, pp. 33695-33724. 2025. |
 | Mauricio SantillanaProfessor of Physics, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Liu, Dianbo, Won-Yong Shin, Eli Sprecher, Kathleen Conroy, Omar Santiago, Gal Wachtel, and Mauricio Santillana. "Machine learning approaches to predicting no-shows in pediatric medical appointment." NPJ digital medicine 5, no. 1 (2022): 50.
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 | Babak HeydariAssociate Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Chen, Qiliang, and Babak Heydari. "Architecting Adaptive Networks: Reinforcement Learning with Generative Policies for Multi-Agent Governance." Journal of Mechanical Design 148, no. 1 (2026): 011701. https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/mechanicaldesign/article/doi/10.1115/1.4070755/1229782 |
 | Javed AslamChief of Artificial Intelligence, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Aslam, J., Saleem, A., & Lai, K. H. (2025). Supply chain management in the era of generative AI (ChatGPT): Technology fit and psychological drivers of adoption. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/11151815 |
 | Sunny YangAssistant Professor of Political Science and Communication Studies, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Yang, Seo Eun, James D. Wilson, Zhong-Lin Lu, and Skyler Cranmer. "Functional connectivity signatures of political ideology." PNAS nexus 1, no. 3 (2022): pgac066. https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/1/3/pgac066/6590843 |
 | Nabeel GillaniAssistant Professor, Design & Data Analysis and Marketing, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Overney, Cassandra, Hang Jiang, Urooj Haider, Cassandra Moe, Jasmine Mangat, Frank Pantano, Effie G. McMillian, Paul Riggins, and Nabeel Gillani. "Human-AI Narrative Synthesis to Foster Shared Understanding in Civic Decision-Making." arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.19643 (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.19643 |
 | Denise GarciaProfessor of Political Science and International Affairs, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Garcia, Denise. "Algorithms and decision-making in military artificial intelligence." Global Society 38, no. 1 (2024): 24-33. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13600826.2023.2273484 |
 | Samuel ScarpinoDirector of AI + Life Sciences, Institute for Experiential AI, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Kraemer, Moritz UG, et al. "Artificial intelligence for modelling infectious disease epidemics." Nature 638.8051 (2025): 623-635. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08564-w |
 | David BauProfessor of Computer Science, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Ahsan, Hiba, Arnab Sen Sharma, Silvio Amir, David Bau, and Byron C. Wallace. "Elucidating Mechanisms of Demographic Bias in LLMs for Healthcare." arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.13319 (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.13319. |
 | Hilary RobinsonAssociate Professor of Law and Sociology, Northeastern University | Featured Publication: Kunind Sharma, Lidong Chen, Michael Jane, Ozlem Ergun, Hilary Robinson, Hannah Johnston, Christopher Tirrell. “Simulations to Study Workers, Regulations, and Platforms in the Gig Economy.” Proceedings of the 21st International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems. May 9-13, Auckland, New Zealand. https://guaguakai.github.io/aasg2022/assets/AASG2022_paper_7.pdf |