SOCI 325: Sociology of Science

Agenda

AI, knowledge,
& social data

  1. AI from a technosocial
    persepective
  2. Group discussions

Technosocial AI

AI as invaluable helper?

OR

AI as tool of oppression?

Cartoon frame from the Jetsons depicting a robot (Rosie) following a man (George) who is eating a sandwich. The robot is sweeping up crumbs the man drops as he walks. Still from The Matrix movies, showing multiple identical copies of a menacing looking man dressed in a sharp suite and dark glasses (Mr. Smith)

AI is “expected to mimic, augment, or displace human agency” (Joyce et al 2021, 2)

AI supply chain

1. Theory

Flattening social data and problems

A person siloutted against a whiteboard covered in differential equations

A red heart composed of ones and zeros

2. Implementation

Capitalist and state-sanctioned framework

3. Uses

Policing, surveillance, redlining (but also disaster management, accessibility, etc.)

A group of people looking at themselves on closed-circuit TV in a dim room

Photo of people on a train holding their phones

4. Downstream

The output from AI is targeted at and consumed by everyone

AI supply chain

  1. Theory
  2. Implem-
    entation
  3. Uses
  4. Down-
    stream

The technosocial in AI theory

  • Social factors influence the kinds of questions that get asked, and what constitutes an ‘appropriate’ answer
    (Kuhn 1970)
  • “Rendering the world technical”
    Tania Murray Li & Samantha Breslin
  • Data representations, objective functions, analysis of outcome, etc.
    (Sismondo 2009, Ch 6)
A five-by-five grid of small wooden boxes, each of which contains a slightly surreal or ephemeral black-and-white photo or figurine of a person.

AI supply chain

  1. Theory
  2. Implem-
    entation
  3. Uses
  4. Down-
    stream

The technosocial in AI implementation

  • Data and evidence are not ‘neutral’
    (Gould 1981; Amann and Knorr Cetina 1988)
  • Political, institutional, and economic forces favor the interests of powerful players (DeepMind, OpenAI, etc)
    (Sismondo 2009, Ch 17; Wolfe 2018)
  • The training, testing, and provision of AI tools requires extensive (and usually exploitative) human labor
    Roberts (2020)
Three panel Scooby-Doo meme. Panel 1 has the Scooby gang standing in front of a tied up ghost; ghost is labeled 'AI' and the gang has the text 'Now let's see who's *really* coming for our jobs'. Panel 2 has Fred reaching for the ghost, still albeled 'AI'. Panel 3 shows the ghost revealed to be a man with a sinister grin and a mustache, now labeled 'shareholders'.

AI supply chain

  1. Theory
  2. Implem-
    entation
  3. Uses
  4. Down-
    stream

The technosocial in AI uses

  • AI and ML are used in healthcare, policing, marketing, sentencing, profiling, content moderation, …
  • The uses of AI are very flexible, but tend to be used more effectively by those in power
    (Adams 2002)
  • AI may be especially compatible with oppressive structures
    (Winner 1980)
A small robotic tank, painted in military camouflage, with a machine gun mounted on it.

AI supply chain

  1. Theory
  2. Implem-
    entation
  3. Uses
  4. Down-
    stream

The technosocial in AI's downstream consequences

  • Everyday life is increasingly mediated by AI (social media, news articles, navigation, …)
  • Consumers of AI-generated content are increasingly aware of its role in, e.g., curation
  • AI tools are deployed to interact with AI tools
  • AI content is ‘poisoning the pool’ of available training data

Next class

Local knowledge

  • Allen (2018)
    Strongly Participatory Science and Knowledge Justice in an Environmentally Contested Region

Image credit

Cartoon frame from the Jetsons depicting a robot (Rosie) following a man (George) who is eating a sandwich. The robot is sweeping up crumbs the man drops as he walks.

Still from The Jetsons (1962)

Still from The Matrix movies, showing multiple identical copies of a menacing looking man dressed in a sharp suite and dark glasses (Mr. Smith)

Still from The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

A person siloutted against a whiteboard covered in differential equations

Photo by ThisisEngineering RAEng on Unsplash

A red heart composed of ones and zeros

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash

A group of people looking at themselves on closed-circuit TV in a dim room

Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash

Photo of people on a train holding their phones

Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash

A five-by-five grid of small wooden boxes, each of which contains a slightly surreal or ephemeral black-and-white photo or figurine of a person.

Image generated with stability.ai's SDXL v1.0 model

A small robotic tank, painted in military camouflage, with a machine gun mounted on it.

Photo by Sergei Bobylev\TASS via Axios

rendering the world technical: Tania Murray Li (engineering), Samantha Breslin (CS ed)