Presenting timely conversations about the purpose and power of technology that bridge our interdisciplinary research with broader public conversations about the societal implications of data and automation. For more information, visit datasociety.net.
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As AI is integrated into scientific practice, the practice of science itself is changing. AI models that summarize, categorize, simulate, and predict not only stand to accelerate scientific research; they now sit inside these practices, alternately enhancing and eroding craft while shifting how questions are posed, what counts as evidence, how tacit judgment is taught and exercised, and reshaping…
While many people have found benefit and respite in using chatbots for companionship, mental health, and emotional support, the widespread adoption of these tools has also resulted in harm and raised deep concerns about identity and safety. How are chatbots shaping people’s understanding of themselves? What concerns do therapists have about their use? How might these tools be designed and…
In her new report (404) Job Not Found: What Workforce Training Can’t Fix for Black Atlantans in the Age of AI , Data & Society researcher Anuli Akanegbu provides the first ethnographic examination of how AI-related skills are defined, taught, and valued across Atlanta’s growing tech economy. Drawing on interviews, field observations, and historical analysis, she traces how AI literacy is promoted…
The second Trump administration has launched a full-scale effort to achieve “unchallenged global technological dominance.” It is accelerating the construction of AI infrastructure, from opening up federal lands to ramping up energy production. It has invoked AI-enabled “efficiency” in order to replace federal workers, removed agency guidance on algorithmic discrimination, and supercharged the use…
Generative AI models are marketed as the next revolution in workplace automation, but they ultimately rely on human labor — from the people labeling content and checking outputs, to the content creators and workers whose data are extracted to build the systems. As management and organizational leaders adopt AI across workplaces, the use of these systems raises questions about how companies are…
The concentration of power and lack of regulation in the technology industry directly shapes how AI is designed and deployed, and whose interests it serves. That means decisions about these tools often reflect corporate priorities over public benefits. While AI is often held up as a tool to increase “efficiency,” it is essential to ask: efficiency for whom, and at what cost? What would it mean to…
Artificial intelligence technologies run on powerful computers that require vast amounts of energy, water, and critical minerals. As AI use grows, so does its environmental footprint. Yet there is little consensus on how to assess and address the technology’s toll on the climate before irreparable damage is done. How can we understand the impact AI data centers have on communities and the…
Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping many aspects of our daily lives: from the way people are hired for jobs, to how housing applications are reviewed, to how government services are delivered in healthcare, education, and beyond. But while organizations of all kinds have been introducing AI systems into their core functions, there is uncertainty about how they are working — including who is…
In this moment of AI ascendance and data center accelerationism, there are thousands of tech workers who are concerned about the realities of climate change and see the tech industry’s growing role in it — and who are actively working to create change, develop better tools, and organize for collective action. In her report "Turning the Tide: Climate Action in and Against Tech," Climate,…
Democracy faces challenges worldwide, and artificial intelligence has become an increasing part of that. In their book Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship , cybersecurity technologist Bruce Schneier and data scientist Nathan E. Sanders methodically unpack the ways AI is changing every aspect of democracy, while making the case that we can harness the…
