Leveraging Graph Neural Networks for User Profiling: Recent Advances and Open Challenges

The proposed tutorial aims to familiarise the CIKM community with modern user profiling techniques that utilise Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). Initially, we will delve into the foundational principles of user profiling and GNNs, accompanied by an overview of relevant literature. We will subsequently systematically examine cutting-edge GNN architectures specifically developed for user profiling, highlighting the typical data utilised in this context. Furthermore, ethical considerations and beyond-accuracy perspectives, e.g. fairness and explainability, will be discussed regarding the potential applications of GNNs in user profiling. During the hands-on session, participants will gain practical insights into constructing and training recent GNN models for user profiling using open-source tools and publicly available datasets. The audience will actively explore the impact of these models through case studies focused on bias analysis and explanations of user profiles. To conclude the tutorial, we will analyse existing and emerging challenges in the field and discuss future research directions.