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Shifting AI Controversies

Shaping 21st Century AI – Controversies and Closure in Media, Policy, and Research

 

“Artificial Intelligence” (AI) is currently in its formative stage. Politicians, experts and start-up founders tell us that AI will change how we live, communicate, work and travel tomorrow. Autonomous vehicles, the detection of illnesses, automated filtering of misinformation and hate speech – AI is seemingly set out to fix fundamental problems of our societies. At the same time, substantive concerns are raised that these developments might reinforce social and economic inequality, exacerbate the opacity of decision-making processes, and ultimately question human autonomy. Moreover, the direction of the scientific field itself is up for dispute, with leading practitioners of machine learning publicly disagreeing about the long-term importance of different approaches to designing and training these artificial agents.

This conjunction of dynamic technological developments, fundamental controversies and massive investments sets the scene for the project Shaping AI. This multinational collaboration of partners in Germany, France, UK and Canada offers a comparative, longitudinal inquiry into how AI as a sociotechnical phenomenon is being integrated into our societies. 

 

The project employs diverse sets of methods, including historical, ethnographic, and computational methods and the Media Lab’s cartographie de controverses, to investigate the discourse and developments around AI’s “deep learning revolution” over the ten formative years from 2012 to 2021 in the four partner countries and across three key domains. The media analysis investigates AI debates in major news outlets, niche websites and social media conversation. The policy analysis maps and analyze the existing policy initiatives, whitepapers and regulations in each country. The research analysis maps publication archives and scientific communities and experiments with ethnographic embedding in relevant workshops and conferences where AI intersects with social issues. In addition, the project investigates and instigates formats of public engagement by hosting participatory workshops that enable stakeholders and members of the public to debate and negotiate AI pathways. 

This particular research design allows the project to retrace how 21st-century AI has been repeatedly constructed as both a problem and a solution: how throughout its brief history and unknown future, AI cultures negotiate across controversies and (apparent) closure without the scope of “AI” ever being fully defined.This international, comparative, multi-methodological study with a clear commitment to public knowledge and engagement seeks to extend and redistribute the range of expertise that is relevant to ensure that the coming of AI is truly for the greater good.

Shaping AI is a multinational collaboration by the Humboldt Institute of Internet and Society, Berlin, the medialab at Sciences Po, Paris, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methods at the University of Warwick, and the NENIC Lab at INRS Montreal, and the Algorithmic Media Observatory at Concordia University. The collaborators won a 1,7 Mio € grant awarded by the partners’ national research foundations in the highly competitive Open-Research-Area (ORA) scheme.

The project builds on previous and ongoing work at the HIIG in this space such as the discursive and political construction of AI and the research program on the Evolving Digital Society.

Duration02/2021 – 01/2024
FundingFörderlinie Open-Research-Area (ORA) von DFG, ANR, ESRC, SSHRC
PartnersMedialab at Sciences Po, Paris, the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methods (CIM) at the University of Warwick, and the NENIC Lab at INRS Montreal, and the Algorithmic Media Observatory at Concordia University

Contact

Anna Jobin, Dr.

Associated Researcher: The Evolving Digital Society

Part of the research programme

SHIFTING AI CONTROVERSIES

At the international conference "Shifting AI Controversies" we explore the interventions we need to move towards society-centred AI.

Former employees

  • Fabian Sofsky
    Former Associated Researcher: The Evolving Digital Society
  • staff dummy Lea Tiyavorabun
    Former Student assistant: The Evolving Digital Society
  • Oke Seliger
    Former Student assistant: The Evolving Digital Society

Journal articles and conference proceedings

Katzenbach, C., Pentzold, C., & Otero, P. V. (2024). Smoothing Out Smart Tech’s Rough Edges: Imperfect Automation and the Human Fix. Human-Machine Communication, 7(2), 23-43. DOI: 10.30658/hmc.7.2 Publication details

Hepp, A., Loosen, W., Dreyer, S., Jarke, J., Kannengießer, S., Katzenbach, C., Malaka, R., Pfadenhauer, M., Puschmann, C., & Schulz, W. (2022). Von der Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion zur kommunikativen KI. Publizistik, 67(4), 449–474. DOI: 10.1007/s11616-022-00758-4 Publication details

Liebig, L., Güttel, L., Jobin, A., & Katzenbach, C. (2022). Subnational AI policy: shaping AI in a multi-level governance system. AI & Society. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-01561-5 Publication details

Katzenbach, C. (2021). “AI will fix this” – The Technical, Discursive, and Political Turn to AI in Governing Communication. Big Data & Society, 8(2). DOI: 10.1177/2053951721104618 Publication details

Book contributions and chapters

Jobin, A. & Katzenbach, C. (2023). The Becoming of AI: A Critical Perspective on the Contingent Formation of AI​​. In Lindgren, S. (Eds.), Handbook of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence (pp. 43-55). Cheltenham, United Kingdom: Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd. DOI: 978 1 80392 855 5 Publication details

Scheibner, J., Jobin, A., & Vayena, E. (2022). Internet of Things Devices, Citizen Science Research and the Right to Science: Ethical and Legal Issues. In M. Ienca, O. Pollicino, L. Liguori, E. Stefanini, & R. Andorno, The Cambridge Handbook of Information Technology, Life Sciences and Human Rights (pp. 231-243). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI: 10.1017/9781108775038 Publication details

Working paper

Jobin, A., Guettel, L., Liebig, L., & Katzenbach, C. (2021). AI Federalism: shaping AI policy within states in Germany. arXiv. Publication details

Other publications

Fecher, B., Gümüsay, A. A., Bohn, S. & A. Jobin (2023). Resilience without accountability holds back transformative change. LSE Impact Blog. Publication details

Kopps, A., & Katzenbach, C. (2022). Turning back time for Content Moderation? How Musk’s takeover is affecting Twitter’s rules. Digital society blog. Publication details

Liebig, L., & Jobin, A. (2022). Artificial Intelligence made in X: die deutsche KI-Policy-Landschaft. Digital society blog. Publication details

Lectures and presentations

Military AI and human augmentation: On the shifting boundaries between super weapons and super soldiers
Conference: Shifting AI Controversies – Prompts, Provocations & Problematisations for Society-Centered A (Session: Imaginaries of AI). Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Berlin, Germany: 29.01.2024 Further information

Thomas Christian Bächle

Negotiating AI Imaginaries across local realities andcultural differences in Germany, the US, and China
Conference: Shifting AI Controversies – Prompts, Provocations & Problematisations for Society-Centered AI. Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Berlin, Germany: 29.01.2024 Further information

Christian Katzenbach

The sociotechnicity of AI
Difussion #101. Center for Digital Society, Goethe-Institut Indonesia. Center for Digital Society, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia: 09.10.2023

Anna Jobin

Shifting AI Controversies. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany: 05.10.2023 Further information

Laura Liebig

AI Federalism: How Subnational Policy Tackles a ‘Global’ Technology
IAMCR - Communication Research in the Era of Neo-Globalisation: Reorientations, Challenges and Changing Contexts. International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). Online, Beijing, China: 11.07.2022 Further information

Laura Liebig, Anna Jobin, Licina Güttel, Christian Katzenbach

Ethics and Epistemology for Artificial Intelligence and Machine Behavior
Frontiers Symposium: 12. Brazilian-German Frontiers of Science and Technology Symposium. Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. Maceió Atlantico, Maceió, Brazil: 02.07.2022 Further information

Anna Jobin

Communicating AI Policy: How Technology Comes to Matter in Media
Annual ICA Conference: 72nd Annual ICA Conference: One World, One Network‽ (Session: Communicating AI: Shaping Artificial Intelligence in Policy, Research and Media). International Communication Association. Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile, Le Palais des Congrès de Paris, Le Méridien Etoile, Paris, France: 30.05.2022 Further information

Anna Jobin, Laura Liebig, Christian Katzenbach

Intelligent machines in a fluid world: Deconstructing metaphors in Japanese AI policy
Artificial Intelligence and the Human Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction (Session: The Languages of AI). Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Japanese-German Center Berlin. Japanese-German Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany: 12.05.2022 Further information

Maurice Jones

Shaping AI – Imaginaries and Controversies of AI in Media and Policy
Artificial Intelligence and the Human Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Science and Fiction (Session: Imagining AI & the Human). Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society, Japanese-German Center Berlin. Japanese-German Center Berlin, Berlin, Germany: 12.05.2022 Further information

Christian Katzenbach, Vanessa Richter, Anna Jobin, Laura Liebig

Challenges in governing AI - evidence from soft law
Invited Talk. AI Lund, ADM Nordic. Online, Lund, Sweden: 15.12.2021 Further information

Anna Jobin

Targeted: Digital Communication and Advertising
Panel: Communication and Ad-Financed Media. University of Leipzig. University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany: 12.11.2021

Anna Jobin

AI federalism: shaping AI policy within states
Digital Democracy Workshop (Session: Governance, Regulation, and Public Policy). Democracy Community of the Digital Society Initiative, Digital Democracy Lab at the University of Zurich. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland: 28.10.2021 Further information

Licinia Gütel, Anna Jobin

Panels

[un]Stable Diffusions Symposium. Concordia University. Concordia University, Montréal, Canada: 23.05.2023 Further information

Christian Katzenbach, Laura Liebig

Moderation of workshops and panels

AI in Media and News
Shifting AI Controversies – Prompts, Provocations & Problematisations for Society-Centered AI. Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society. Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Berlin, Germany: 30.01.2024 Further information

Laura Liebig

Shifting AI Controversies. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany: 05.10.2023 Further information

Christian Katzenbach, Lena Henkes, Laura Liebig

Organisation of events

Shifting AI Controversies – Prompts, Provocations & Problematisations for Society-Centered AI
From 29.01.2024 to 30.01.2024. Berlin Social Science Center (WZB), Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Lena Henkes, Christian Katzenbach

Not my Existential Risk! The politics of controversy in an age of AI
29.01.2024. Museum of Communication Berlin, Berlin, Germany (International) Further information

Lena Henkes

Shifting AI Controversies
05.10.2023. Humboldt Institut für Internet und Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany (National) Further information

Laura Liebig, Lena Henkes, Christian Katzenbach

Digitaler Salon: KI – Die Letzte räumt das Internet auf
31.03.2021. Livestream, Berlin, Deutschland (National) Further information

Natasha Vukajlovic, Philip Meier, Christian Grauvogel