Hello AoIR colleagues (with apologies for cross-posting), I’m writing to invite you to Penn MEDIATED’s online convening, LLMs are the Third Wave of Automated Content Moderation. The convening will be held via Zoom on September 10 from 11-12:30 EST and you can register at this link<https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/CbOYuDe0TvSpcmoY--eKPg#/registration>. You can see the overview, agenda, and speaker lineup below—it has researchers (including own affiliated faculty Yphtach Lelkes and Danaé Metaxa) and technologists who will examine how LLMs are changing online platform’s content moderation, how they compare to prior automated systems, and what the emerging research in this space tells us. We’ll also hear from practitioners building a new ecosystem of custom LLM-based moderation systems. LLMs are the Third Wave of Automated Content Moderation Content moderation is critical to protecting users against harmful and illegal online content, although it may also restrict free expression. Over the past two decades, platforms have increasingly turned to automation to perform content moderation at scale. First through hashing algorithms and later through predictive machine learning methods, many large platforms have automated over 90% of content moderation actions. Today, online platforms are increasingly exploring using large language models (LLMs), as a new component of the content moderation technology stack. With online platforms conducting mass layoffs of trust and safety teams, while also increasing investments in their AI development, this convening will explore how LLMs fit in the content moderation landscape and what that means for platforms, policymakers, and users. This convening brings together researchers, technologists, and practitioners to examine what this third wave of automated content moderation means in practice. We will explore how LLMs are being deployed by platforms today, how they compare to prior automated systems, and what the emerging research in this space tells us. We will hear from experts who are building their own custom systems using LLMs for content moderation and researchers who study their implications for information integrity. The conversation will also examine the policy environment shaping adoption: regulatory frameworks in the EU, Brazil and India, are setting new expectations for the speed and transparency of content moderation decisions, incentivizing further automation by online platforms. We will share a pre-read working paper on this topic in advance of this event. [Register at this link<https://upenn.zoom.us/meeting/register/CbOYuDe0TvSpcmoY--eKPg#/registration>] Agenda Alex Engler - Welcome and Introduction Alice Hunsberger - A trust and safety professional’s view Brief Presentations * Dave Willner & Samidh Chakrabarti - A demo of Zentropi’s content classification tool and how it is different from other LLM-based content moderation approaches * Camille François & Juliet Shen - Overview of open-source tooling for LLM-based content moderation and the importance of cross sectoral collaboration in this space * Audience Q&A Research Presentations * Professor Yphtach Lelkes and Neil Fasching share findings from their recent paper: Model-Dependent Moderation: Inconsistencies in Hate Speech Detection Across LLM-based Systems<https://aclanthology.org/2025.findings-acl.1144/> * Professors Danaé Metaxa and Sorelle Friedler discuss their recent work: Identity-related Speech Suppression in Generative AI Content Moderation<https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.13725> * Audience Q&A Discussion and Open Questions * Societal implications of LLMs in content moderation (Firestarter: Dia Kayyali * Policy developments are shaping LLM content moderation (Firestarter: Prithvi Iyer) Closing Remarks Speakers * Alice Hunsberger, Head of Trust and Safety, Musubi * Dave Willner, Co-Founder, Zentropi * Samidh Chakrabarti, Co-Founder, Zentropi * Camille François, President, ROOST * Juliet Shen, Head of Partnerships, ROOST * Yphtach Lelkes, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communications, UPenn * Neil Fasching, Postdoctoral Researcher, UPenn * Danaé Metaxa, Raj and Neera Singh Term Assistant Professor of Computer & Information Science, UPenn * Sorelle Friedler, Shibulal Family Professor of Computer Science, Haverford College Alex C. Engler Executive Director, Penn MEDIATED Penn Center on Media, Technology, and Democracy<https://infodem.upenn.edu/> The University of Pennsylvania Amy Gutmann Hall #506 acengler@upenn.edu ​​** Want to understand what ails our information ecosystem? ** ** Get our ​Newsletter<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/2017639/1984707/__;!!DZ3fjg!5zZ4FhCdO-SZ5igZN95VJsYOalvC8F6d3UxTvYDoGo-eJCg3VjjBrp57looIKQpbGg66qTFkCh2T8CxI7blmPPWuLEXbDFI$> | Follow us on BlueSky<https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:xkug7clrldzrj7rktb2jewsk> or ​LinkedIn<https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.linkedin.com/company/penn-center-on-media-technology-and-democracy__;!!DZ3fjg!5zZ4FhCdO-SZ5igZN95VJsYOalvC8F6d3UxTvYDoGo-eJCg3VjjBrp57looIKQpbGg66qTFkCh2T8CxI7blmPPWuOebrTQc$> **