Nicholas Christakis

Nicholas Christakis is the director of the Human Nature Laboratory and professor of social and natural sciences at Yale University. He is also the co chair of the Yale Institute of Network Science. Christakis is a sociologist and doctor who mainly studies biological sociology and investigates the results of social phenomena. Christakis focuses on studying the relationship between social networks and happiness. His research encompasses two phenomena: one is the social, mathematical, and biological rules that connect social networks, and the other is the biological and sociological significance of how these rules operate, that is, how they affect our thoughts, feelings, and behavioral contagion. Currently, the laboratory is studying the interaction between humans and artificial intelligence in complex social systems. They invented robots that can help humans solve social difficulties and tested them. Humans are surrounded by social networks, but in this network of interpersonal relationships, we are increasingly incorporating the form of machine intelligence. Humans are increasingly interacting with software or real machines. Therefore, an important scientific challenge is to understand how we should apply these new technologies - whether intentionally or accidentally - to promote beneficial social interactions. This is especially true when there is a possibility of conflict between individual and collective interests, such as cooperation, coordination, sharing, navigation, and even evacuation from disasters. Christakis believes that intelligent robots can solve these problems and demonstrates how artificial intelligence can help humans cope with the challenges encountered in coordination, cooperation, evacuation, and sharing processes. Christakis and his long-term partner James Fowler co authored a book on social networks, titled 'The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives', which has been translated into 20 languages.