Biography

Dr. Xu researches political discourse across digital platforms, focusing on how such discourse is spread through networked digital infrastructure and the impact of far-right populism and nationalism. He employs computational models to identify key players, influential spheres, and prominent topics in online political conversations. His work aims to foster a global public sphere that is open, vibrant, and robust, capable of countering the threats of democratic backsliding and authoritarianism.

Latest Publications & Projects

• My recent interviews with the New York Times on alt-tech
• My recent interviews with the Associated Press on alt-tech and Spotify’s Joe Rogan problem.
• Read my recent work on state-affiliated media
• Read my recent work on partisan news diffusion.
• Read my recent work on the Alt-right and Antifa and their collective actions on Twitter.
• Read my recent paper on online public spheres on Chinese Weibo.

Current research

• Generative AI and political discourse
• Generative AI, synthetic media production, activism

Fun AI projects

• I am the mastermind behind this AI-generated podcast: Real Time with AI Agents
• I am the culprit behind this bot that automates creativity through LLMs.

Non-Academic Writings

I write a Substack called Opensource Soul Project https://opensourcesoul.substack.com/

What is CuriosityBits CC for?

I built this site to share open-source content created in my research and teaching. You will find interactive tutorials on using R to collect, analyze, and visualize social media data, copies to my recent publications, and a repository for past data visualization projects. Some of the content is also available on my old website (https://www.curiositybits.com/).