09/02/2026
What do punk rock and academia have in common? For David Rand ’04, professor at both the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science, quite a lot.
A former punk rocker who once had a record deal, Rand now studies some of society’s most urgent questions at the intersection of AI, psychology, economics and political science — including why people believe misinformation and how AI might help change their minds.
His work has taken him from studying “fake news” to developing DebunkBot, an AI chatbot designed to challenge conspiracy theories through reasoned conversation. This fall, he and colleague Gordon Pennycook are launching a new initiative focused on using AI to build a more informed society.
From punk shows to pioneering research, Rand’s path back to Cornell is anything but conventional.
Read more about his research, his return to Ithaca and why he sees surprising parallels between being a professor and being in a punk band. https://vist.ly/5h3gb