University College Cork

• Chegg.org launched its Global Student Survey in 2021, during COVID lockdowns, and has conducted a survey every year since.
• Crucially, according to our survey, the top priority for improving the technology among all those surveyed worldwide was the involvement of human expertise.
• At the same time, 54% of students worldwide have experienced daily feelings of anxiety – with those in the US (68%) worst affected.
• In addition, nearly half (46%) of students globally have suffered academic burnout, particularly those in South Korea (70%).

• While the resemblance was there, the face seemed slightly out of sync with the head of the Ukrainian president.
• In the video, Volodymyr Zelensky announced that the war was over, a fact that the majority of Ukrainian people knew was false.
• While this was happening online, the ticker at the bottom of the screen on the channel’s live television feed read the same message.
• Commentators and academics have pointed out that fake videos can be made much more easily and quickly using deepfake technology than with previous methods.

Loss of trust

• We also found evidence of people losing faith in all videos from the conflict, with some people endorsing theories that world leaders were dead and had been replaced by deepfakes.
• Of the many examples of deepfakes used online during the Russo-Ukrainian war, the example of Zelensky claiming that the war was over was perhaps the most frightening.
• This is because it highlighted how deepfakes could be used, along with hacked media services, to spread messages that were counterfactual.

Humour, confusion and scepticism

• There were also deepfake (and CGI) videos made by the Ukrainian government to educate people on the conflict.
• Interestingly, demonstrating the ability of Ukraine to create false videos, even though they were educational, might have been counterproductive.
• Much of the discussion of deepfakes online involved healthy scepticism, such as advice for fact checking and detecting deepfakes.

Learning the lessons

• What lessons can the average social media user take away from this research?
• The prevalence of deepfake videos online has increased over the last five years and the technological detection of deepfake videos is not currently accurate enough to be a solution in itself.

John Joseph Twomey receives funding from LERO/SFI Ireland. Conor Linehan receives funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council, and Google. He is affiliated with Lero, the Irish centre for software research. Gillian Murphy receives funding from Science Foundation Ireland, the Irish Research Council, and Google. She is affiliated with Lero, the Irish centre for software research.

• Very often, workplace bullying or harrassment is inflicted by someone in a position of authority.
• These perpetrators are firmly to blame, of course, but victims can be met with silence from bystanders.
• If you witness someone being bullied or harassed at work, you might be reluctant to intervene for many reasons.
• If they witnessed someone being bullied by somebody senior to them, 28% said they would be afraid to get involved.

Confronting workplace bullying

• While researching intervention, I was inspired by law expert Rachel Fenton’s work on how bystanders can help challenge problematic behaviour.
• It also aims to teach people how to make safe and effective interventions if they witness bullying or harassment.


Once you become aware of ongoing toxic behaviour, you could even plan these interventions in advance to try to avoid escalation. But if a confrontation still seems like the only option, finding someone better positioned to intervene may be the best route. This could be another person in authority, the bully’s line manager, a member of HR or even the police.

Taking a stand

• The aim of any bystander intervention training is to help people realise that, whatever your limits, capacities or status, everyone has the power to take a stand – we can all play a part in changing a toxic environment.
• So, you could suggest this kind of training in your workplace or school.

• This landmark gathering will share learnings and apply extensive experience to look at the ways the industry can tackle the seismic sea changes already affecting talent acquisition.
• Supernova will bring experts in talent acquisition and tech from Ireland and around the world together to roadmap what needs to be adapted today and how to future-proof for tomorrow.
• Topics of discussion include finding efficiencies in talent acquisition teams, the role of AI in the hiring process, and how to harness the power of hidden talent.
• Among the confirmed speakers is Talent Acquisition and Enablement Leader Seth Williams, who revolutionised talent sourcing during his almost two decades at Google.