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Cybersecurity master’s student Sneha Talwalkar (left) and GTRI principal investigator Courtney Crooks (right) build on recent developments in cognitive security to help victims of domestic violence. I am working towards this.Credit: Kevin Beasley/University of Computing
Georgia Tech researchers are working to develop new software tools that leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to address the under-researched areas of digital security and domestic violence.
These areas often overlap with abusers who often use the internet and mobile technology to extend the scope of their abuse. However, due to the small scale of these online attacks, they have received less attention from security researchers.
Lead researcher Courtney Crooks and graduate student Sneha Talwalkar are working to bring relief to victims of domestic violence, building on recent developments in cognitive security.
The public health impact of domestic violence, also known as intimate partner violence (IPV), has been studied by Crooks for several years through research and practice in her role as a licensed psychologist and researcher.
After seeing how new technologies opened up new avenues of exploitation online, Crooks leveraged his experience working at Georgia Tech Research Institute, Georgia Tech School of Cybersecurity and Privacy (SCP) to I realized that I could fill a gap in this research field. Emory University School of Medicine.
To get what they want, abusers try to change the victim’s mental state through cognitive manipulation and use a variety of tactics to do so. Fraudsters decided to explore ways to help IPV survivors combat the cognitive security risks of these enhanced technologies as they progress in their recovery.
The software Crooks and Talwalker are working on will educate survivors about these potential or observed abuses by leveraging well-known, developmentally appropriate, and psychologically based learning strategies. This is to warn you. This tool focuses solely on the unique risks faced by IPV survivors. Applying human-centered design principles and ethical standards to his AI designs will be a top priority for his team.
The team is working to develop AI-assisted interventions based on psychological information and specifically focused on the unique risks faced by survivors. These interventions will be designed to work alongside traditional support methods such as mental health and community resources.
“It’s important to understand that abusive relationships are complex. Some people can escape abuse, but many cannot,” Crooks says. “Alternatively, they may physically flee, but resources such as phones, online accounts, and finances may still be vulnerable to their abuser. Survivors may also be unable to communicate with their abuser, such as when sharing children. We may need to continue communicating.”
Regardless of the situation, once the victim escapes the relationship, it is often difficult to stop communicating with the abuser. This inability to break is because the psychological bond was strengthened when you were with your ex-partner.
The AI technology proposed by Crooks and Talwalkar does not work like a ChatGPT chatbot. Instead, they act like a coach, learning from the abusive behavior’s tactics and the survivor’s likely responses.
The tool makes recommendations based on each user’s specific recovery progress and goals, while considering potential risks. To improve its coaching performance and general knowledge base, the AI continues to learn from the outcome of each incident faced by survivors.
“This model provides the necessary interventions to support IPV survivors’ recovery,” Talwalker said. “We want to use artificial intelligence for good purposes, and this project is a step in that direction.”
The SCP Master’s coursework played a pivotal role in shaping Talwalker’s research in this field. While researching internet censorship and language models, she recognized new challenges posed by her AI in security. After her insightful conversation with her SCP professor Peter Swire, Tal Walker was able to confidently shift her focus to investigating malicious intent in immersive environments. With Crooks’ guidance, she began investigating the sociotechnical environment of her IPV.
“Designing User-Centered Artificial Intelligence to Support Recovery from Domestic Abuse” has been accepted as an extended abstract and will be presented at the 2023 World Congress Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing event this summer . IEEE proceedings The work will be published in the next issue.