Shilling Attacks on Recommender Systems

Data Skeptic · Nov 5, 2025 · 34m

In this episode of Data Skeptic's Recommender Systems series, Kyle sits down with Aditya Chichani, a senior machine learning engineer at Walmart, to explore the darker side of recommendation algorithms. The conversation centers on shilling attacks—a form of manipulation where malicious actors create multiple fake profiles to game recommender systems, either to promote specific items or sabotage competitors. Aditya, who researched these attacks during his undergraduate studies at SPIT before completing his master's in computer science with a data science specialization at UC Berkeley, explains…