Lynnette Hui Xian NG
Lynnette Hui Xian Ng

Lynnette Hui Xian Ng

Societal Computing research · Deputy Head (Information Management), DSTA Singapore · Principal Investigator, The LAN Shop

I study how AI agents (bots) and humans interact in online communities, and how automated persuasion shapes those communities. My methods draw on network science, computational social science, and natural language processing.

I lead The LAN Shop — Language, Agents, and Networks — at the Information Programme Center, DSTA, Singapore. I obtained my PhD in Societal Computing from the Department of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, advised by Prof. Kathleen Carley, where I received the Best Dissertation Award, for the foundational impact and influence of my research. I received my B.Comp. from the Department of Computer Science, National University of Singapore, where I was awarded the NUSS Medal for Outstanding Achievement.

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Research Interests

Selected themes — see the full research page for details and papers.

Social Bots & Cyborgs

Detecting and characterizing automated and human-automated hybrid accounts across platforms.

Coordination & Information Operations

Finding coordinated, synchronized behavior and influence campaigns in online networks.

Network Science

Applied graph theory and dynamic network analysis of online social structures.

LLM-Augmented Agent-Based Models

Simulating social media bot personas and persuasion dynamics with large language models.

Featured Projects

AuraSight preview

AuraSight

Visualizing and generating realistic social media data.

 A Decade of Bot preview

A Decade of Bot

A retrospective literature review on a decade of social bot research.

 Bot Buddies Feed Sprint preview

Bot Buddies: Feed Sprint

A mini game based on the BotBuster Universe.

More projects, talks, and media on the Resources page.

PhD Thesis & Book

Bots, Bias, and Influence: The Hidden Architects of Social Media

My thesis, Foundations of Cyber Social Agents, is available to read here.

A portion of the thesis was adapted into the trade book Bots, Bias, and Influence: The Hidden Architects of Social Media (Cambridge Scholars Publishing). Amazon · Publisher. Email me for a discount code or to arrange a book review. 

@book{ng2026bots,
  title={Bots, Bias, and Influence: The Hidden Architects of Social Media},
  author={Ng, L.H.X. and Carley, K.M.},
  isbn={9781036473112},
  url={https://books.google.com/books?id=dnTtEQAAQBAJ},
  year={2026},
  publisher={Cambridge Scholars Publishing}
}

Awards

News Features

Talks

Selected recent talks — full list on the Resources page.

  • Nov 2026RSIS DRUMS Conference panel, “New Technology, New Tactics: Technological Advancements in Information Manipulation,” talk titled “The Architects of Narrative Evolution.”
  • Oct 2026“Generating Artificial Societies with the LAND Simulation Architecture,” Research Sharing hosted by Maarten Sap, Language Technologies Institute, CMU.
  • Oct 2026“Analyzing Social Dynamics of Generated Societies,” Research Sharing hosted by Kathleen Carley, Software & Societal Systems Department, CMU.
  • Oct 2026“Affective Publics in Arabic Social Media,” for Army Cyber Command Information Assurance training.
  • Sep 2026Cognitive Security Institute, “Information as the New High Ground.”
  • Jul 2026“Three Things the Social Media Bot Research Got Wrong a Decade Ago,” at DSTA.
  • Feb 2026University of Pittsburgh CS Colloquium: “Simulating Social Media Bot Personas with LLM-Augmented Agent-Based Models.”
  • Jun 2025CASOS Summer Institute.
  • Jan 2025AI x Disinformation Summit, held at Carnegie Mellon University.
  • Sep 2024SBP-BRiMS tutorial: The BotBuster Universe.

Teaching & Service

Beyond Research

I was born with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and lived with it for 29 years, including two pacemakers, before receiving a heart transplant at UPMC Presbyterian in March 2023. It's a whirlwind story I'm still writing — read and subscribe here.

Outside of research, I play violin with the Pittsburgh Philharmonic Orchestra and love exploring Pittsburgh and the wider United States. Some of that shows up on my Instagram, which has been featured by CMU's School of Computing.