Special Topics: Artificial Intelligence and the Digital Risk Society [Seminar]

The seminar course delves into the digital risk society, as it is shaped in the era of artificial intelligence, algorithms, big data, and in conditions of hybridity through socio-physical-technical integrations. Contributions from the fields of the sociology of risk and uncertainty, trust and technology, sociology of artificial intelligence/algorithms and big data, and digital sociology are combined. The working groups that will be formed will initially elaborate approaches that focus on new theorizations of risks such as the «global risk of digital freedom», the «digital risk society» or the «cyber risk». The above is examined in conjunction with concerns raised regarding the explanatory limits of social theory and the neglect of «non-human others», as well as how, within the context of relational materiality, heterogeneous actors/entities interact and shape conditions of risk. In this context, aspects of both «algorithmic additional action» and «algorithmic resistance» are highlighted. Subsequently, students will delve into the way identities are formed and the transformations that take place in institutions in conditions of reflexive modernity, inextricably linked, among others, to globalization, new mobility systems, the "new individualism" and new forms of somatization; the characteristics of today's hybrid society and new forms of networking; the relationship between technoscience and society; as well as the challenges created in social research. Through the above, both the importance of risk-taking as a structural characteristic of today's "algorithmic societies" and the new forms of emotional experience in the era of "algorithmic intimacy" are highlighted. The above is examined with a focus on the phenomena of artificial intelligence, algorithms, big data and in conditions of extensive digitalization, making risks fluid, unpredictable, and difficult to control or produced through uncertain forms of knowledge and research practices. Consequently, the framework of policies, ethics and law concerning digital technologies is shaped in terms of (in)security, leading to the decline of trust in science, institutions and human relations. In the above light, issues such as those of the digital divide and digital rights are explored. Special focus is given to aspects of dataization, archival monitoring/liquid surveillance and the reproduction of biases through the «opening of black boxes». The central issues that arise in relation to AI technological systems concern non-evaluative neutrality and inherent opacity, non-accountability, non-attribution of responsibility, lack of discretion and empathy, and reproduction of inequalities and discrimination. The above constitute the bridge for the elaboration of specific examples in fields such as, among others, governance, labor, environment, education, migration, health, sports, leisure, crime and social control, highlighting aspects of today's hybrid risks.