Project Grant 2614238

The National Science Foundation Division of Computer and Network Systems awarded Clemson University $1.2 million on October 1, 2026, under the Computer and Information Science and Engineering program (CFDA 47.070) to develop safeguard frameworks protecting young adults from unsafe AI-generated content on generative artificial intelligence platforms.

The project executes four research thrusts over a four-year period through September 30, 2030. Thrust 1 develops a cognitively grounded framework for large language models that detects inconsistencies between user beliefs and behaviors. Thrust 2 investigates semantic-preserving mitigation of images in diffusion models by removing unsafe visual elements while preserving prompt meaning, image structure, and visual coherence. Thrust 3 develops a normative knowledge-guided safeguard layer based on retrieval-augmented generation and vision-language models to inspect generated images and videos using relevant policies, age-appropriate guidance, contextual norms, and curated precedents. Thrust 4 evaluates behavioral harm reduction through surveys and in-depth interviews with young adults and parents to examine whether reduced exposure to unsafe generated content leads to measurable changes in engagement patterns, perceived acceptability, and beliefs.

Project outcomes include more robust protection against adversarial and ambiguous prompts, safer multimodal content generation, transparent and auditable safety decisions, and behavior-centered evaluation methods for trustworthy generative AI. Work is performed in Clemson, South Carolina.