Related papers: Libra: Is it Really about Money?
In a commentary published in mid-2024 (to which the present work is a direct response), a number of scientists argue that U.S. funding agencies have "politicized" the process by which grants are awarded, in service of diversifying the…
The Artificial Intelligence paradigm (hereinafter referred to as "AI") builds on the analysis of data able, among other things, to snap pictures of the individuals' behaviors and preferences. Such data represent the most valuable currency…
Blockchain is challenging the status quo of the central trust infrastructure currently prevalent in the Internet towards a design principle that is underscored by decentralization, transparency, and trusted auditability. In ideal terms,…
Information and communication technologies are by now employed in most human activities, including economics and finance. Modern computers have reached an extraordinary power in terms of information processing, storage, retrieval, and…
Much of the recent excitement around decentralized finance (DeFi) comes from hopes that DeFi can be a secure, private, less centralized alternative to traditional finance systems. However, people moving to DeFi sites in hopes of improving…
Online Social Networks are becoming the most important "places" where people share information about their lives. With the increasing concern that users have about privacy, most social networks offer ways to control the privacy of the user.…
We construct a financial "Turing test" to determine whether human subjects can differentiate between actual vs. randomized financial returns. The experiment consists of an online video-game (http://arora.ccs.neu.edu) where players are…
Financial large language models (FinLLMs) with multimodal capabilities are envisioned to revolutionize applications across business, finance, accounting, and auditing. However, real-world adoption requires robust benchmarks of FinLLMs' and…
Large language models (LLMs) excel in text understanding and generation but raise significant safety and ethical concerns in high-stakes applications. To mitigate these risks, we present Libra-Guard, a cutting-edge safeguard system designed…
In this chapter we provide an overview of the concept of blockchain technology and its potential to disrupt the world of banking through facilitating global money remittance, smart contracts, automated banking ledgers and digital assets. In…
The United States risks losing its global leadership in information technology research due to declining basic research funding, challenges in attracting talent, and tensions between research security and openness.
The Internet of Things paradigm envisions the pervasive interconnection and cooperation of smart things over the current and future Internet infrastructure. The Internet of Things is, thus, the evolution of the Internet to cover the…
One 'problem' with the 21st century world, particularly the economic and business worlds, is the phenomenal and increasing number of interconnections between economic agents (consumers, firms, banks, markets, national economies). This…
Social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook have been shown to function as effective social sensors that can "feel the pulse" of a community. The aim of the current study is to test the feasibility of designing, implementing and…
We quantify Facebook's ability to build shadow profiles by tracking individuals across the web, irrespective of whether they are users of the social network. For a representative sample of US Internet users, we find that Facebook is able to…
The presence of Super-Apps have changed the way we think about the interactions between users and commerce. It then comes as no surprise that it is also redefining the way banking is done. The paper investigates how different interactions…
Cyber security threats to the payment and banking system have become a worldwide menace. The phenomenon has forced financial institutions to take risks as part of their business model. Hence, deliberate investment in sophisticated…
Elections are not the only but arguably one of the most important pillars for the proper functioning of liberal democracies. Recent evidence across the globe shows that it is not straightforward to conduct them in a free and fair manner.…
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have surged in popularity over the last decade. Although Bitcoin does not claim to provide anonymity for its users, it enjoys a public perception of being a `privacy-preserving' financial system. In…
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is built on a fundamentally different paradigm: rather than having to trust individuals and institutions, participants in DeFi potentially only have to trust computer code that is enforced by a decentralized…