Francesco Pierri

`Welcome to my personal website!`

I am an Assistant Professor in the Data Science group within the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB) at Politecnico di Milano. I am also affiliated with Indiana University Bloomington’s Observatory on Social Media (OSOME) and I have been a Visiting Scholar at the University of Southern California’s Information Sciences Institute.

My research sits at the intersection of Computational Social Science and Artificial Intelligence, using data-driven methodologies in computer and network science to study large-scale online phenomena. A central theme of my work is exploring the transformative impact of generative AI on digital information ecosystems, particularly its role in amplifying misinformation and disinformation. I also focus on developing principled frameworks to ensure the safety, accountability, and integrity of digital platforms in addressing these challenges.

Feel free to reach out via email at: francesco dot pierri at polimi dot it

For a complete list of my publications check my Google Scholar profile.

News

Apr. 2025: I am co-teaching a Ph.D. Course with Mark Carman and Marco Brambilla about “LARGE LANGUAGE MODELS: APPLICATIONS, OPPORTUNITIES, AND RISKS” for the Ph.D. in Information Technology at Politecnico di Milano.
Mar. 2025: I got the National Scientific Habilitation in 09/H1 – Sistemi di Elaborazione delle Informazioni (II Fascia)!
Mar. 2025: Paper accepted at npj Complexity! Check the paper here: Modeling the amplification of epidemic spread by individuals exposed to misinformation on social media.
Mar. 2025: I will be in Xi’an for a month teaching a course in Data Science at XJTU-Polimi Joint School of Design and Innovation. First time in China for me, I am excited!
Feb. 2025: I gave an online seminar about LLMs and online misinformation to the SODA group at INRIA, it was fun!
Jan. 2025: Paper accepted at NAACL 2025! Stay tuned for the preprint: Can I Introduce My Boyfriend to My Grandmother? Evaluating Large Language Models Capabilities on Iranian Social Norm Classification.
Jan. 2025: Paper accepted at PeerJ Computer Science! Check the preprint here: Comparing diversity, negativity, and stereotypes in Chinese-language AI technologies: a case study on Baidu, Ernie and Qwen.
Jan. 2025: We have a Special Issue at ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology on “Risks and Unintended Harms of Generative AI Systems”.
Deadline: May 31st, 2025.
Jan. 2025: I went to CS2Italy in Trento — the first Italian conference on Computational Social Science — and had an amazing time! We gave four presentations about past and ongoing work: one, two, three and four.
Dec. 2024: I was invited to a roundtable with academics and platforms at the European Commission to discuss about the “delegated act” of the DSA (we also put together a feedback here).
Nov. 2024: Paper accepted at ICWSM 2025! Check the preprint here: Nicer Than Humans: How do Large Language Models Behave in the Prisoner’s Dilemma?
Oct. 2024: I was interviewed by Kai Kupferschmidt on Science about the challenges of research about misinformation! Check the full interview here.
Oct. 2024: Paper accepted at EPJ Data Science! Check it here: Drivers of hate speech in political conversations on Twitter: the case of the 2022 Italian general election.
Oct. 2024: Invited talk at TOFFEe (Tools for Fighting Fakes) final meeting, Scuola IMT Alti Studi in Lucca.
Sept. 2024: Oral presentation at ITADATA 2024 conference and invited talk at the National Research Council in Pisa.

Activities

Program Committee for: CSCW (2022), ICWSM (2022-25), The ACM Web Conference (2024-2025), CIKM (2022-25), ACM WebSci (2022-25), IC2S2 (2023-25), EUCAI (2025)
Co-chair International workshop on Cyber Social Threats (CySoc) Workshop series (@ICWSM’22, @TheWebConf’23, @ICWSM’24, @ICWSM’25)
Associate Editor, EPJ Data Science, Springer
Associate Editor, PLoS One
Guest Editor Special Issue on “Risks and Unintended Harms of Generative AI Systems” ACM Transactions on Intelligent Systems and Technology – deadline 30 May 2025
Lead Guest Editor Special Issue on “Computational Approaches for Cyber Social Threats” EPJ Data Science, Springer
Coordinator Ph.D. School “Computational Social Science: Advances, Challenges and Opportunities” (1st edition) as part of Lake Como School of Advanced Studies (https://css.lakecomoschool.org/, May 2024)

`Welcome to my personal website!`

`News`

`Activities`

`Thesis Proposals`