A man with glasses and a headset microphone, wearing a white shirt, speaks on stage with blue curtains behind him. The screen shows a YouTube video titled Human Values and Integrity in Social Media Recommendations – KEYNOTE.

Alon Y. Halevy – Director Facebook AI: Attending Digitalize in Stockholm was truly inspiring!

Online social networks provide a platform for sharing information and free expression. However, these networks are also used for malicious purposes, such as distributing misinformation and hate speech, selling illegal drugs, and coordinating sex trafficking or child exploitation. Keeping users on these platforms safe from such harm is a major focus for social media companies. The topic was raised by Alon Y. Halevy, Director of Facebook, AI, in his talk ‘Human Values and Integrity in Social Media Recommendations‘ at Digitalize in Stockholm 2022.

In the first part of his talk, Halevy describes recent progress in addressing this problem, particularly the use of Artificial Intelligence techniques. In the second half of the talk, he takes a broader view of the problem as one of incorporating human values into social media recommendations. Critically, this topic raises challenges that span much beyond pure technical ones. Halevy shares some observations from a study on human values that included experts from the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Human-Computer Interaction, psychology, policy, law, and journalism.

– Attending Digitalize in Stockholm was truly inspiring. The range and diversity of ideas and experiences was truly impressive! concludes Alon Halevy.

Alon Halevy has been a director at Meta AI (and most recently, Reality Labs Research) since 2019, where he works on Human Value Alignment, the combination of neural and symbolic techniques for data management and responsible personal information management.

Before Facebook, Alon was the CEO of Megagon Labs (2015-2018) and led the Structured Data Research Group at Google Research (2005-2015), where the team developed WebTables and Google Fusion Tables. From 1998 to 2005, he was a professor at the University of Washington, where he founded the database group. Alon is a founder of two startups, Nimble Technology and Transformic Inc. (acquired by Google in 2005). He received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford in 1993. Alon co-authored two books: The Infinite Emotions of Coffee and Principles of Data Integration. He is a Fellow of the ACM and a recipient of the PECASE award and Sloan Fellowship. With his co-authors, he received VLDB 10-year best paper awards for the 2008 paper on WebTables and the 1996 paper on the Information Manifold data integration system. In 2021, he received the Edgar F. Codd SIGMOD Innovations Award.

Link to talk on Youtube: https://youtu.be/3DNHBlxZMC0

More news

A blue banner reading Nobel Calling Stockholm, Nobel Prize Museum stands indoors, with blurred people walking by and wooden panel walls in the background.

Nobel Calling: Discovering how the digital society of the future is being shaped at Digital Futures

16/10/2025

On 8 October 2025, the Digital Futures hub opened its doors for Nobel Calling Stockholm, welcoming...

A person with short light brown hair and round orange glasses smiles slightly while wearing a grey shirt in a sunlit indoor space with blurred background.

Towards Human–AI Symbiosis: Google XR’s Mar Gonzalez-Franco to speak at Digitalize in Sthlm

15/10/2025

How will humans and AI collaborate in the future? As artificial intelligence continues to evolve,...

A smiling man wearing glasses and a suit holds an award certificate on stage, standing in front of a blue background with the word earpa and a stylised car outline.

Sacha Baclet wins “Best Young Researcher Elevator Pitch” award at EU Forum in Brussels

13/10/2025

Brussels, October 2025 — KTH young researcher Sacha Baclet has been awarded the prize for “Best Young Researcher...

A hand holds a round object against a blurred sunset background. Text reads: Digital Futures marks its fifth anniversary this October – five years since its inauguration on 1 October 2020.

Shaping the next five years: Annika Szabo Portela on leading Digital Futures

01/10/2025

Digital Futures marks its fifth anniversary this October – five years since its inauguration on...