Professor Bu Zhong

Speech Title: AI and the New Global Digital Order

Biography

Dr. Bu Zhong (Ph.D., University of Maryland – College Park) is a Professor and the inaugural Head of the Department of Interactive Media, School of Communication at the Hong Kong Baptist University. Before he came to Hong Kong, he worked as a professor at the Donald P. Bellisario College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University. He holds an affiliate professorship at Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, a faculty affiliate of the Penn State Center for Socially Responsible Artificial Intelligence and Center for Social Data Analytics (SoDA). Currently, he is the Senior Editor of Computers in Human Behavior. His research applies decision-making theories to the analysis of information processing and its effects on behavior, cognition, mental health, and social well-being. He explores human-technology interactions as a complex adaptive system, in which the complexity of social systems and health disparities driven by digital transformation has been extensively scrutinized. His recent work focuses on studying long Covid and opioid use disorder as both a social and health crisis, which identifies key economic determinants and other underlying social factors that contribute to treatment outcomes, especially symptom mitigation.

Research Interests

• Artificial humans
• Digitally mediated communication
• Health behavior change
• Healthcare outcomes
• Interactive media
• Information processing
• Media effect research
• Social media communication
• Socially responsible AI
• Symptom management of chronic diseases