This post is part of a series of articles introducing members of the TITAN Consortium and their motivations for working on disinformation and AI research and innovation.
Who are you, where do you work, and what is your role on the TITAN project?
My name is Sissel Fibecker Ladegaard, and I work as a project manager at the Danish Board of Technology (DBT) where I do public engagement process about various topics within technology development. At DBT, along with my colleague Marie, I have developed the framework for the first citizen co-creation workshops and stakeholder workshops and will contribute to the development of method for Living Lab and execute the Living Lab workshops in Denmark. I strongly believe that it is necessary to revisit the results from our co-creation processes throughout the entire lifespan of the project to ensure that we keep true to our aim our developing a human-centred AI-system.
Have you experienced disinformation yourself?
Yes, I think everyone in today’s society experience disinformation regularly. I try to keep a sceptical and critical approach to information in general, but I would lie if I said that I have not taken disinformation for factual information only to later learn that it was not valid information.
What trends do you see regarding disinformation and the move to mitigate/counter its
influence? (e.g., tools / services / markets / demographics)
There is a lot of talk about how generative AI will be the next big wave that can push and spread disinformation at increased speed, and I think it is interesting how there simultaneously is a lot of discussion about how AI can also help counter the spread of disinformation. The duality of the possibilities in AI as both the good and bad guy makes it an interesting debate to follow.
What do you think is unique about TITANs approach to countering disinformation?
I believe there are two things about TITAN that makes it approach unique. First, the focus on
enhancement of citizens’ critical thinking abilities and secondly, the efforts there are put into
ensuring societal acceptance through public – and user engagement.
What’s a fact about yourself that people might find surprising?
I can make pancakes without using a recipe and they turn out great each time! Bonus: I also
always make the first pancake as equally well-baked as the rest.