Raiding the inarticulate since 2010

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Can ChatGPT do public sociology? Sociological Practice, AI and Platform Capitalism

I’ve started mapping out my keynote for the Finnish Sociological Association conference next year and I’m getting really excited about writing this 🤗

Can ChatGPT do public sociology? The question might seem frivolous at a time when generative AI is generating widespread anxiety within universities about the integrity of assessment. However, I suggest it helps us understand the profound implications which these systems have for sociological practice. Drawing on my research into how academics use social media and generative AI, I argue that conversational agents can support public sociology in concrete and practical ways. However, this possibility needs to be understood against the backdrop of platform capitalism within which these tools have emerged. Far from being a radical break with what came before, generative AI represents an intensification of the dynamics which defined social media platforms: the enclosure of social activity as training data, the computational processing of human experience and the commodification of interaction. Under these conditions, the capacity of conversational agents to support public sociology exists in tension with their contribution to a deteriorating digital public sphere. Understanding this tension through the lens of sociological practice can help us negotiate between the opportunities and threats which generative AI poses for public sociology, as well as suggesting how we might contribute to the development of more sustainable digital platforms which could support rather than undermine public scholarship.

I’d promised myself I’d take a break from the obsessive book writing, particularly as I’m struggling to get the next two (Platform & Agency, How To Enjoy Writing) over the line. But it feels like there’s a book length argument I’m sketching out in next year’s keynote, which draws together different strands of my work in a really important way.

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