For this episode, we talk with Emilio Ferrara, an Associate Professor at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He's also a Research Team Leader for AI at USC’s Information Sciences Institute and the Director of the Annenberg Networks Network, ANN for short. Earlier this year, Emilio became the Chair of the Web Science Trust Network of Laboratories (WSTNet for short).

In this episode, Emilio discusses his vision for the next generation of Web Science, especially in light of his newly appointed chair position. And he also talks about some of his research into how bots and social media can manipulate conversations around vaccines and public health. He has a particular perspective on this area -- much before COVID-19, he was involved in a DARPA challenge surrounding bots engaged in vaccination debate. Then, in January 2020, right as the pandemic was coming on the horizon, Emilio's lab jumped on collecting data about bots spreading COVID-19 conspiracies. For insights into this and more, listen to this episode.

Click here for this episode’s transcript, and click here for this episode’s show notes.