Chris Bail
@chrisbail.bsky.social
Duke Professor directing https://scai.duke.edu, https://sicss.io & https://polarizationlab.com. Author of Breaking the Social Media Prism.
1/ 🚨 Big news 🚨 today we’re launching Tech for Open Minds (TOM) at @DukeU— a global program exploring how technology shapes open-mindedness, humility & polarization 🌍🧠
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
August 29, 2025 at 4:06 PM
1/ 🚨 Big news 🚨 today we’re launching Tech for Open Minds (TOM) at @DukeU— a global program exploring how technology shapes open-mindedness, humility & polarization 🌍🧠
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
🔗https://sicss.io/stories/2025-08-18
It's #SICSS O'clock!!!! Hundreds of students all over the world are learning about computational social science *for free* thanks to the hard work of so many brilliant young scholars who dedicated their time this summer to train the next generation-- from Colombia to Kenya! sicss.io
June 20, 2025 at 3:37 PM
I had the great honor to award Yann leCun Duke's inaugural "Distinguished Lectureship in Society-Centered AI" last week. One of my favorite parts of his lecture was his argument that one of the greatest risks of future AI models is that they may not be built by a diverse enough group of people.
March 14, 2025 at 3:05 PM
I had the great honor to award Yann leCun Duke's inaugural "Distinguished Lectureship in Society-Centered AI" last week. One of my favorite parts of his lecture was his argument that one of the greatest risks of future AI models is that they may not be built by a diverse enough group of people.
Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and launch interdisciplinary research projects? We are so excited to announce there will be *26* Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science this year! Apply to one of them here: sicss.io/locations
February 24, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Want to learn about computational social science *for free* and launch interdisciplinary research projects? We are so excited to announce there will be *26* Summer Institutes in Computational Social Science this year! Apply to one of them here: sicss.io/locations
Want to hear dozens of amazing AI research talks, develop new interdisciplinary conversations as part of Duke's new Society-Centered AI initiative, or participate in our organization's first hackathon? Check out our www.responsibleaisymposium.com February 28-March 3rd.
February 20, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Want to hear dozens of amazing AI research talks, develop new interdisciplinary conversations as part of Duke's new Society-Centered AI initiative, or participate in our organization's first hackathon? Check out our www.responsibleaisymposium.com February 28-March 3rd.
Tiktok boosted Republican messages 11.8% more than Democrat messages during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race according to this new study that employed bots to view ~394,000 videos.
February 1, 2025 at 8:38 PM
Tiktok boosted Republican messages 11.8% more than Democrat messages during the 2024 U.S. Presidential Race according to this new study that employed bots to view ~394,000 videos.
The National Science Foundation has now instructed all researchers to pause new purchases now too :(
January 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM
The National Science Foundation has now instructed all researchers to pause new purchases now too :(
Peak polarization discourse?
December 10, 2024 at 2:57 PM
Peak polarization discourse?
Do podcasts play a decisive role in politics? This fascinating new paper maps the ecosystem using a large database of podcast transcripts from 2020. My first take away: politics is dwarfed by entertainment (not unlike social media): arxiv.org/pdf/2411.07892
November 15, 2024 at 2:26 PM
Do podcasts play a decisive role in politics? This fascinating new paper maps the ecosystem using a large database of podcast transcripts from 2020. My first take away: politics is dwarfed by entertainment (not unlike social media): arxiv.org/pdf/2411.07892
Several days before the election, a paper was posted that employed GPT 4-o to predict the election outcome via data from the American National Election Study. It produced this electoral map (below). See arxiv.org/pdf/2411.01582
November 8, 2024 at 7:44 PM
Several days before the election, a paper was posted that employed GPT 4-o to predict the election outcome via data from the American National Election Study. It produced this electoral map (below). See arxiv.org/pdf/2411.01582
🎶 “I’ve seen the needle and the damage done” 🎶
November 6, 2024 at 1:47 AM
🎶 “I’ve seen the needle and the damage done” 🎶
Looking for the perfect birthday present for Harrison Butker?
@jessicacalarco.bsky.social
has you covered!!!!
@jessicacalarco.bsky.social
has you covered!!!!
May 16, 2024 at 2:52 PM
Looking for the perfect birthday present for Harrison Butker?
@jessicacalarco.bsky.social
has you covered!!!!
@jessicacalarco.bsky.social
has you covered!!!!
It is *vital* not to understate the prevalence of anti-semitism, but we must also be careful not to overstate it as well. Previous reports that 1 in 5 young people deny the Holocaust were probably very inaccurate according to this careful analysis from Pew: shorturl.at/rCHN1 .
May 7, 2024 at 4:29 PM
It is *vital* not to understate the prevalence of anti-semitism, but we must also be careful not to overstate it as well. Previous reports that 1 in 5 young people deny the Holocaust were probably very inaccurate according to this careful analysis from Pew: shorturl.at/rCHN1 .
Interesting new research on how extremist movements spread across social media platforms: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
May 7, 2024 at 12:28 AM
Interesting new research on how extremist movements spread across social media platforms: www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Researchers at Stanford pitted AI against Human Experts in a war-game simulating conflict with China: arxiv.org/pdf/2403.034...
April 7, 2024 at 1:52 PM
Researchers at Stanford pitted AI against Human Experts in a war-game simulating conflict with China: arxiv.org/pdf/2403.034...
Fascinating new experiment shows that people who interact with an AI chatbot vs. a person report "feeling heard" more often. However, the effect disappears when the people learn they are interacting with an AI chatbot (Bing Chat): shorturl.at/cnuwx.
April 2, 2024 at 6:17 PM
Fascinating new experiment shows that people who interact with an AI chatbot vs. a person report "feeling heard" more often. However, the effect disappears when the people learn they are interacting with an AI chatbot (Bing Chat): shorturl.at/cnuwx.
Youtube, Twitter, and LinkedIn usage are all trending downward over the last year according to the latest USC Neely center survey on social media usage. Reddit, on the other hand, appears to be growing.
March 29, 2024 at 7:37 PM
Youtube, Twitter, and LinkedIn usage are all trending downward over the last year according to the latest USC Neely center survey on social media usage. Reddit, on the other hand, appears to be growing.
It's important to criticize social media companies when they make mistakes, but also applaud them when they achieve progress (e.g. in reducing incivility). According to the Neely Center's recent surveys, both Nextdoor and Facebook have made real progress on this front over the last few months.
March 5, 2024 at 6:20 PM
It's important to criticize social media companies when they make mistakes, but also applaud them when they achieve progress (e.g. in reducing incivility). According to the Neely Center's recent surveys, both Nextdoor and Facebook have made real progress on this front over the last few months.
Had a blast at the @openai and @southparkcommons hackathon this weekend. Our team didn’t win, but we made the finals! Never been more excited about the future of computational social science after meeting so many talented/inspiring people. Thanks for having me!
March 4, 2024 at 6:50 PM
Had a blast at the @openai and @southparkcommons hackathon this weekend. Our team didn’t win, but we made the finals! Never been more excited about the future of computational social science after meeting so many talented/inspiring people. Thanks for having me!
My last book will soon be available in Chinese! Really excited to hear what Chinese/Taiwanese readers think-- particularly since we need so much more research on social media and polarization outside the United States!
February 27, 2024 at 3:05 PM
My last book will soon be available in Chinese! Really excited to hear what Chinese/Taiwanese readers think-- particularly since we need so much more research on social media and polarization outside the United States!
Moderates are the most knowledgeable about politics, according to a study of 45 countries: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
February 4, 2024 at 7:45 PM
Moderates are the most knowledgeable about politics, according to a study of 45 countries: www.nature.com/articles/s41...