Dr. L.K. Bertram is a renowned, award-winning author and Associate Professor at the University of Toronto. L.K.’s work specializes in history, social media disinformation, and the A.I. shift. By examining lessons from the past, L.K. equips audiences with the tools necessary to anticipate and responsibly navigate our own time of rapid, unprecedented change.  

L.K.’s insights have profound implications for academia and society. Her expertise has garnered global recognition and awards throughout her distinguished career. As the anonymous professor behind a large-scale open history classroom on Instagram (20m+ views), she studies how institutions can build better data pipelines to the public and generate big reach for quality content. L.K.’s educational workshops on A.I. as an industrial revolution, tackling disinformation, and making quality data outperform fake content use history to explore future possibilities. 

At the University of Toronto, students and faculty look to L.K. for a deeper understanding of how historical lessons can help us analyze trends, grapple with disinformation and prepare for the rapid advancements in artificial intelligence.

L.K. resides in Toronto, Canada.

Disinformation is one of the most pressing issues of our time. However, few people know that disinformation is an ancient military and political tactic with a big history. Could this history help us prepare for our own ongoing battles and the new waves of disinformation that will accompany the age of generative AI (including ChatGPT)? From the battlefields of 18th-century North America to the information warfare of the 21st century, historical societies have responded to the strategic spread of deliberately incorrect information in a range of ways. This talk provides an essential foundation for understanding the older origins of disinformation and some of the historical strategies for protecting communications systems that served generations past. Using rare paintings, museum artifacts, and even historical forgeries, it offers hands-on examples of how unlocking the history behind this modern problem could help us better protect the future integrity of online spaces, experiences, and emerging AI technologies.

How do we make accurate data go viral? Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are great at creating huge reach for content, but they are also popular tools for spreaders of disinformation. Research shows that debunking bad content after it has already spread cannot completely erase the effects of rumours and fake news. How can we do more to mobilize fact-focused content to reach massive audiences on some of the world’s most popular platforms for younger audiences? Drawing from the experience of building viral content and a large, fact-based open history classroom with 18 million views, this presentation describes the top five strategies to make good data outperform the bad for audiences on Instagram and TikTok.