Deb Roy: Technology & Social Behavior Colloquium

In an era where holding conversations with an AI chatbot is normalized, researchers are looking for ways to engage publics in meaningful conversations, not with AI, but through it. 

On May 9th, Northwestern welcomed Deb Roy, a professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and Director of the MIT Center for Constructive Communication (CCC), who presented to Technology and Social Behavior PhD students his nonprofit communication platform, Cortico.  

Cortico utilizes AI technology to prompt, support, and analyze conversations from underserved and underheard voices and perspectives. By addressing key issues that plague society today, like algorithms’ rewarding of outrage instead of conversation, the drowning out of authentic voices that don’t fit the mold, and most importantly, people’s craving for honest connection, Cortico aids in building conversations that are fruitful and engaging. With the help of 250+ established organizations across the U.S. and its human-centered AI model, Cortico has been able to connect individuals within a unified conversation network and, from those conversations, unpack patterns, revealing underlying meanings that are used to bridge community gaps, elevate societal groups, or recommend policy.

Roy and Cortico represent a movement by academics constructing AI tools that build civic muscle instead of those that replace it. There’s an understanding that society benefits the most from human connection and understanding rather than from human-AI push-button interactions. With Cortico, there’s a new way to produce productive conversations, and it’ll be interesting to witness how cultural gaps created by ideological divides might be supported by it.  

Thank you to Deb Roy for discussing the wonderful platform that is Cortico and all the insightful dialogues it has been an active contributor to. 

The Colloquium series is organized by the TSB PhD program and Agnes Horvat, Director of Graduate Studies.