Tag: digital

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From AI to xAI

As humans, we like the feeling to be in control of things. This applies even to immaterial things like religious beliefs. Generative AI has created problems with its hidden structures and lack of transparency of their applications of algorithms (and combinations of algorithms) to basic data bases of knowledge and information. The use of xAI, which stands for explainable artificial intelligence, can address some of the concerns about the lack of transparency and explanation of responses from AI systems. Many users want to know in advance about the consequences of the use of specific words or notions in an instruction to AI. The interpretation of each single word by xAI can inform about the precision of interpretation (cheap versus cheapest, for example) or highlight the sensitivity to gender-neutral language or not in its guidelines. Additionally, ex post the xAI could indicate alternative notions in a prompt and, briefly, how this would affect results.
Yes, there is a trade-off between brevity of answer and room for explanations. As in psychology, there some value in a “thinking aloud” procedure for respondents in order to better understand (implicit) the reasoning behind a reply. xAI takes us a step further in this direction of asking AI to think aloud or more explicitly in a human compatible way of logic and broader reasoning.
Put AI on the psychotherapist’s bench and xAI will be to the advantage of many more humans again. Humans just don’t like black box systems that lack the necessary as well as sufficient transparency. (Image on the right: Patrick Jouin, chaise solide C2, MAD digital humanism).

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Digital Social Networks

Social networks have become the place to be. The need to distinguish the digital social networks from the social networks of people in the analog or “real” world is important, as we realize that many young persons seem to suffer from loneliness despite a hundred personal links in the digital social networks. This paradox of digital and non-digital social networks needs careful attention of researchers because of the opportunities and risks involved in the transferability of contacts from one network to another.
There is s a kind of “conversion rate” of digital contacts into face-to-face contacts and even purchases for marketing purposes in the world of business. The sociology of the virtual has to deal with these paradoxical social relationships and study the increasing phenomenon of being «alone together». Increasingly we are alone, but together. Over the life course this phenomenon and the digital social network paradox change as well.
To research such a topic we need rather intrusive, personal data and access to the digital traces of people as they construct and deconstruct either form of social networks. 

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Passing barriers

In quantum physics the real trick is not the rebound of electrons like the rebound of droplets, but the passing of electrons of an insulating barrier. The experiment of the ”Josephson junction” has set a precedent to research the surprising macro-effect of “quantum tunnelling”. The 2025 Nobel Prize has been awarded to Clarke, Devoret and Martinis who observed these effects on a macroscopic scale. The applications in the most advanced quantum computers of today shows the enormous potential of this demonstration in pushing computing speed boundaries. The international competition to develop such, ever faster computers, based on quantum physics, is running on high development speed. In combination with the artificial intelligence (AI) developments, these types of combined machines are likely to outpace the development of human-based intelligence. It becomes even more important to define the limits for those machines by us. Subsequently, we shall have to make sure that such combined machines stick to the rules, we define(d).

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Deus ex machina

The term “deus ex machina” used to be applied more in its figurative meaning. With the rise of digital tools like chatbots, facilitated and enhanced through AI, God is speaking to us not only in multiple languages, but also from our pockets through our smartphones and headsets. This is a rather recent form of “deus ex machina”, which we did not expect some years ago. The bible as e-book or pdf-file has been around for some decades, but only more recently we can enter conversations with God through chatbots as another version of “deus ex machina “ about almost everything (and pay for it via digital credit card). Programming of such an AI-tool is easily achieved. AI will prepare a weekly or daily sermon or prayer for you, following your predilections of your favourite quotes of the bible. An interesting twist to the programming is to use authorized as well as unauthorized translations of the bible across several centuries.
Another interesting enlargement of the input data base is the inclusion of interpretations and discussions not only within your own religious community, but beyond. Maybe the discussion of several different religious chatbots with each other could prevent aggressions due to differences in basic beliefs. These “dei ex machina” might further our understanding of what makes us humans different from machines and machine-based solutions of human conflicts.
As genetic clones of ourselves have become already technically more feasible, our digital alter-egos (the comprehensive collection of traces in the internet and digital images, plus social scoring) help to empower those “dei ex machina”.
This kind of “Brave New World” asks us to be rather brave ourselves.
(Image: interior St Denis Basilique Cathedral Paris 2024)

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Chatbot Me

Chatbots are helpful to allow queries to larger data sets like the blog entries here. So here is a try of a Chatbot to query all entries on AI using ChatGPT to create a Chatbot that uses and references it source from www.schoemann.org/tag/ai and the AI reader in pdf-format.
Please send me an email if the hallucinations of this Chatbot 1.0 on AI from a social science perspective are giving strange results. I’ll get back to you. Please use at your own risk as I cannot guarantee for all answers. The usual disclaimer applies here.

ChatGPT proposed the following set of Questions and Answers on the blog for an entry into the chat: Example Q&A with the chatbot

Q: What are the social science concerns with AI?
A: Bias in results, job shifts, democracy risks, privacy, and new inequalities.

Q: What does the text say about reinforcement learning?
A: It’s seen as the next step for AI: focusing on learning and reasoning, not just predicting text. It also uses fewer resources.

Q: How are robots described in the document?
A: Robots are mostly assistants. They can follow people or carry small items, but more complex tasks need sensors and AI training.

Q: What about biased results?
A: Studies can be misleading if control groups are flawed. AI faces the same challenge — social scientists warn: “handle with care”.

Q: What is Schoemann’s blog view on AI?
A: He links AI to energy use, fairness, and its role in the “all-electric society” — stressing efficiency and responsibility.

More on the chatbot (in testing phase) and the Link to the coding help received from ChatGPT on this mini-test-project :
https://chatgpt.com/share/68c1d160-0cc0-8003-bf04-991b9e7c3b24

 

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Bench the benchmarks

In the social sciences as well as in engineering it is common practice to use benchmarks as indicators of performance. Thereby, several countries or regions within a country are compared with respect to quantitative indicator. Let’s take employment ratios. A higher employment ratio, which includes many persons working few hours in part-time work, is different from a slightly lower employment ratio, but hardly any part-time employees.
The same rationale holds true for benchmarks of AI systems or the newer versions of agentic AI that are under construction in many fields. The paper by Yuxuan Zhu et al. (2025) proposes the ABC (agentic behavior checklist) for agentic AI developers. The reporting of benchmarks by such models should include (1) transparency and validity, (2) Mitigation efforts of limitations and (3) result interpretation using statistical significance measures and interpretation guidelines.
The aim of this research is to establish a good practice in establishing benchmarks in the field of agentic AI. The sets of criteria to test for is large and the focus of how the agentic AI treats, for example, statistical outliers much above or below the average i.e. (> 2 standard deviations from the average) assuming a normal distribution, is one case of application only.
We welcome the efforts to bench the benchmarks in the field of AI as is common practice in other sciences as well.

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Home Leaks

When did you last think about leaks in your home?
Usually we associate leaks with water leaks, or the heating system leaking somewhere. In the 21st century leaks at home are more importantly the leaks of your home security, especially your email, digital and cloud services which are at risk. You may test your favourite AI system to advice you on your risks for digital leaks, but we know little whether these systems are yet another dangerous port of entry into your home or privacy themselves.
There is a helpful tool to find, whether your email has been hacked or distributed widely already for potential thefts of your identity. Hence, better check this from time to time using for example the “leak checker“, just like checking whether you closed your door or the water tap before leaving for vacations. As we live more and more in “virtual homes” in addition to our physical homes, checking your digital identities should become a part of our personal hygiene routine. Let’s just take a shower from time to time and change passwords regularly.

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Home Cloud

Our homes have entered the process of virtualization. Not only our collections of photographs, videos of and from family and friends have been stored on cloud servers and services for some time. Homework and school materials are distributed from clouds and the size of such collections quickly reach levels beyond any hand held devices. Hence, the home cloud or your private cloud will be the next option to think about. The safe storage of information, which is intended to be shared amongst many persons, or just private backup solutions find their home on your private cloud. The technology is available at moderate costs, but allows additional safety and flexibility. Your digital home is available wherever you are. No need to carry around with you physical backup devices. Just like for keys, you have to manage access rights to the data and take care of basic security features. It is a bit like running a small enterprise. You have to make sure that users of your home cloud apply basic internet security standards like safe passwords, for example. Similar to the storage in a basement from time to time clearing out duplicates or forgotten items may help to preserve sufficient transparency of what is stored. However, digital tools may help with that task as well. We may enjoy a stroll outside and watch the clouds pass by knowing that our data are fairly safe in their very own home cloud.

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Home extension

Most people think of home extension as some sort of extension of the roof, an additional room or the transformation of a garage into an additional room. However, the digital home requires a home extension of a different kind. In order for all rooms to be included into the digital home a range extender of your wireless might be necessary. Yes, this even includes the bathrooms, because otherwise you can no longer sing along your favourite tune under the shower if you are used to the streaming of the musical or orchestral accompaniment. Additionally, the immediate surroundings of a home with or without garden might make it necessary for your robot to mow properly or your digital letter box to send you the mail for the long awaited love letters while you out of home.
Being out of range in your home, is almost equal to not being home at all. Of course, you don’t have to automatically send an out of home message to all your contacts when you are too far away from your digital home for your digital device, but the comfort of a range extender may avoid the new “digital inequality” between adolescents in your home. Room choices are made according to wireless access points and signal strength rather than the room with the best view. Lots of new issues arise we did not even think we would have 10 years ago. Of course, we follow the suggestions of an AI chatbot that recommends the best location for us after we entered images and descriptions of the consistency of each wall into the system. Just a practical advice, install extensions out of reach of any toddler, because a sudden interruption of the connection will create very unpleasant surprises.

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Reinforcement Learning

Education scientist have embraced the change of focus form a front loaded teaching format to a focus on the learning process of pupils or students. Computer scientists have adopted this strategy in shifting from just knowledge data bases and predictions of likely next words in a sentence or paragraph to learning models. Deep Seek has surprised most large language models by its successful strategy to focus on learning and reasoning. So-called reinforcement learning is key to the programming of next generation AI models. Reasoning in most cases builds on multiple step sequences in answering a more complex question. The model then returns the answer and the steps (reasoning) applied. There is a debate whether summaries or translations of texts would need the reasoning function of AI models. Most of the time reasoning might not be necessary or even counterproductive, if the translation would try to correct an obviously faulty reasoning in a text.
Maybe, imagine also that an ordinary LLM would translate a text containing fake news. A correction loop which involves a cross-checking with reliable external sources like any encyclopedia or wikipedia would complicate the answering procedure of any text. However, this is a bit like, how the process of reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF) works. Reinforcement learning applies a form of accuracy reward, which guides the learning or answering process with checks against mathematical or programming accuracy. Just think of basic logic to be respected in the answer.
Similarly, a formal accuracy control checks against mathematical models and ensures the answer is returning a text with a normal sentence structure or numbering of reasoning steps, an intro and concluding phrase, like we were all asked to do in school or universities. The amount of corrections from humans is reduced quite a lot and the computing resources are also only a fraction of the previous LLMs, which are retrieving answers from enormous databases or gigantic data factories consuming lots of energy in the processing of requests. Remember the movie on Kasparov, the world chess champion, who got beaten by a computer from IBM that did not only have a huge stock of previous games and tournaments, but could make judgments on positions and promising strategies to pursue. Don’t be surprised if a DeepSeek answer is superior to what our own mind and reasoning is capable of. Reinforcement learning is a learning tool, which we also may apply, if we deem it appropriate or just as one way of coming to an answer. (useful reference: Sebastian Raschka, Building a LLM from scratch, Manning). 

(Image, ChatGPT, 2 humanoid robots are thinking and discussing how to repair a notebook which is sitting on a workbench).

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Bricks and algorithms

Construction as an economic sector has suffered for decades from skill shortages. The PWC study on skill needs in construction and management of digitalization in this sector shows various deficiencies. Labor demand in excess of own training efforts in the related professions is further increasing in coming years. Migrants from across the world have come to Europe to fill the skill shortages and willingness to work in the sector. Population aging increases demand for adaptions of housing and tertiarization of the economy asked for new office space and adaptation of existing ones. 

The skills involved in construction have also evolved. Digitalization and understanding of new technology needs of modern housing increased the level of cognitive skills in the sector enormously. “just let the liquid concrete flow” will no longer suffice. Environmental obligations, renewable energy and design issues had an impact on the sector. 

Many enterprises in this sector have trailed other sectors to adopt strategies like digital pairs of a building or connected manufacturing of facilities with data sharing and compatible software. All this led to the fact that younger employees or university graduates (m/f/d) have preferred other sectors. IT development and applications are interesting and challenging in this sector as well. Logistic arrangements a formidable task as well. 

The claim of too much bureaucracy is just an excuse for lacking digitalization of the sector. Years ago we stated that every task you carry out more than once can be automized. With AI in construction digitalization starts with each singular case as a learning occasion for humans and algorithms supporting us.

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Digital Visions

Urban planning has been digitalized for a long time. 3D modeling of places and buildings including their interiors are state of the art. As urbanization is also about investment, speculation and anticipation, digital imaging has entered the public spheres in form of cover up of building sites behind fences and in form of large digital prints for information, curiosity and advertising purposes. The inner cities are frequently an avantgarde and microcosm of societal developments. Some dream of full or total flexibility for office spaces (see image below), others experience the inner cities as the spotlight of inequality in society. The best paid executives are catered for by the worst paid delivery personnel. The photographers of the Landesarchiv Berlin, Grönboldt and Wunstorf, brought together a documentary exhibition entitled „Pixel aus Beton“, pixel made of concrete.

With a bird‘s eye view they reveal past, present and future details of how Berlin is experienced and envisioned by investors, architects and people living through the seemingly endless construction going on in the city. The keywords list as part of the exhibition creates a link to scientific literature and to the TU Center for Metropolitan Studies. Photography and even more so digital photography offers a social science perspective to the digital images exhibited. Cities are data spinning areas and a formidable place for digital visuals and visions.

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HTML Mindset

The hypertext markup language (HTML) allows us to navigate on the internet. No matter which Browser you use on your device, it interprets the HTML-text for you in a specific way. This means: HTML defines headings, normal text, placeholders for images, actionable buttons and referrals to more text, images, or videos. A good HTML enabled textbook for pupils, students or any lifelong learner, for example, will embed easily images, sound recordings or video demonstrations in the e-book. This additionally embedded content asks for a different mindset for content creators: the HTML mindset.
Just like in most learning environments, learners proceed with different speed and interests. HTML allows for additional options to dig deeper into a subject, return to a previous stage, lead on from where you left off before, jump to some other content or listen to a translated paragraph.
Due to the bringing together of content from different technical formats, the HTML mindset has an interdisciplinary touch to it. Blending text and image is our usual way to process information at most exhibitions. In Hypertexts we are “walking” along our own chosen track through the knowledge space or content archive. For web creators, therefore, it is common to use so-called “content management systems” to arrange structure and present content.
The learning of HTML is enhanced through many learning tools (w3schools.com). This helps you to get into the HTML mindset of content creation and a better grip on the interlinked world. (Image: extract of HTML code of this blog post on www.schoemann.org).

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Enshittification

Don’t laugh. This is a very serious scientific term to describe the way social media function in the 21st century. The scientific reference goes back to 2025 and article in “Science” by Kai Kupferschmidt. Twitter, now eXit, like most other social media platforms uses algorithms that select posts for you from the millions of posts that are likely to induce a reaction from you, which prolongs your time on the platform. Additionally, eXit Twitter applies an algorithm that prioritizes accounts with already a huge followership, which makes these accounts even bigger. The result is an increasing inequality in attention to info, facts, fake news, but also revenue for the platform owners through more advertisements. As hate speech and fake news are commonly perceived as shit, many social media are happy to spread more shitty things on their platforms as this generates more money for the platform as well. In short, enshittification happens sooner or later to most platforms and we all suffer from this. As user of these platforms, it is hard to escape from this process, as most platforms tend to “convert” to enshittification at some later point in their life cycle, unlike babies who manage to quit this phase after a few months. A move to Bluesky might be indicated, but there is no guarantee that the same process will just happen again. Mastodon is another small twitter-like platform that like Bluesky offers a more open approach to its governing algorithms and a more controlled access in the registration process.
To avoid enshittification, we have to be ready to move away from one platform to another one, just like changing bank accounts or club memberships. Make sure to take most of your friends with you and there are already tools for this online as well. Enjoy the safe online life again on another platform or consume more of the traditional media like newspapers, radio or tv with proven quality. (Image: extract from Jan Steen, 1625-1679, The Rhetoricians – “In liefde vrij”, MRBAB)

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Game Tech

Gaming has moved digital and online for a long time. Networked gaming and following the best gamers online on video-platforms like twitch has captured a lot of attention from younger generations. With a real trend of gamification for industry and even public services, the digital gaming sector is moving from backstage to front end of companies and services. Public administration as a game. Enjoy the use of a public service through a game-like experience. Walk around in the metaverse world and get your admin work done. I would love to have such an experience. There are so many applications for gamification that the bottleneck is in the human resources to program all these applications. Coding the digital and virtual worlds to get real stuff done is just around the corner. The SCCON 2024 in Berlin showed these technologies next to each other. 2025 we might see integrated prototypes. I have a digital dream, others call it a vision for public services in the 21st century.

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Language Tech

Inclusive societies can build on many tools including AI to lower language barriers. It is not only a question of translation, but many other forms of language come to mind. Sign language or easy language are necessary to facilitate broader access to public services. Reading out texts on webpages or Braille translation for the blind to interact through keyboards are additional forms that are available in digital communication as well. The audio description of videos and images is well advanced (reverse engineered through AI) and allows people with limited vision to fully participate in society. Audio messaging and transcription are used by almost everyone by now. Public services will open up to these channels of communication as well. The technology around languages is much more than just translation and AI-assisted learning of languages (talkpal for example). The new lingua franca is language technology, because it enables us to speak many languages at the same time even dialects or lost languages and in many voices. (Image: Extract of Josef Scharl, the newspaper reader, 1935, Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin)

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Justice Tech

The digital or hybrid courtroom has become more the rule than the exception in Germany. Video conference equipment reduces costs and can speed judicial processes. Even the production of transcripts from the proceedings and circulation of documents and certificates, enhanced by AI will change the speed to exercise justice. Digital tools and technology has found its way into the courtroom and younger lawyers and judges as well as the accused or defendants will value the simplified procedures. Until this is the standard in all legal domains we shall have to wait a bit. In Germany 2026 is the deadline to install the adequate equipment and tech companies and consulting firms like Arktis are well prepared to support this overdue process. In terms of an economic theory of the judicial process a judgement that is delivered years later has to apply a discount rate of at least equal to annual inflation. For moral issues another discount rte might apply. Excessive delays of judgments may cause additional suffering on the side of victims. Justice Tech, therefore, has a role to play in the practical and theoretical debate about „doing justice“. (Image SCCON Berlin 2024-10)

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Citizen Services

In addition to public services there are many citizen initiatives that pick up common interests of citizens. These range from long-term infrastructure projects to daily care and provision in small neighborhoods. Such efforts build on volunteers and the organization of volunteering as an integral part of community life and services. To facilitate these organizational tasks online tools can make a real difference. However, the trust in specific tools beyond the general platforms known for their sketchy treatment of data privacy and protection is low. Therefore it is necessary to rely on trustworthy open source software to support local communities and networks of volunteers in their work and efforts. Secure e-tools for collaboration have an important role to play to reward volunteers with e-learning and being part of or even driver of new digital services. The software „wechange“ offers a platform with several tools for e-organization and communication small communities can set up themselves. Bottom up organizing in addition to the more top down public services complement each other. Going digital is the way forward in both domains.

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Gov Tech

For many years we have believed that technology is something for experts and a special sector of the economy. Private sector companies have taken the lead and innovative applications of e-solutions or web-based applications have moved online to attract huge crowds. Some 20 years later, the scope to move public services online are on top of the agenda as well. Not only in security, defence, infrastructure management and health e-solutions are drivers of innovation and improve the reach out to persons in remote places, where it is hard to keep up equal provision of services otherwise. This is where “Gov Tech” comes into play. Government Technologies I would define as all technolgies that are needed to service your current citizens, past and future citizens as well as “want to be citizens”. This needs a whole of government approach, since there are many cross-cutting issues involved like cyber security and data protection.  “Gov Tech” is no longer just nice to have. It has become a “sine qua non” condition of government. The expectations of people have been shaped by private use and habituation to online access and amenities that government and public services have to follow suit in order to be perceived as similarly close and accessible for people. Besides the technological aspects of hardware and software solutions for gov tech there is the huge issue of taking people with you on that e-journey. Even social policies and social inequality are subject to the e-volution of gov tech. There is a potential to reach more people with the same number of administrators by use of new gov tech solutions. At the same time, the risks to loose people who choose to remain off-line or have no access to online services increases as well. Gov Tech poses multiple challenges as well as interesting solutions. Great to see many regions and states taking these issues very seriously.
(Image: SCCON, Berlin 2024-10).

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Digital Zebra

It is a difficult task in all countries to bridge the digital divide in a society. On the one hand, there are so-called digital natives, those who have grown up with smartphones and notebooks all around them all the time. On the other hand, there are many persons who have not kept track of the digital turn and feel rather lost or are afraid of making mistakes using digital tools. As public services are also moving online, the need for a society-wide comprehensive mastering of digital information and tools have become a sheer necessity. It is much more than just nice to have.
As public services move online like registrations, payments or tax declarations, the need for training and/or assistance of millions of people in a country become a real challenge. This is where the innovative project “digital zebra” in Berlin comes into play. Through the network of public libraries you can get support in person to master your digital challenges.
The name of the project refers to the “zebra crossing” of a road, which assists persons to move from one side to the other side, just like crossing the digital divide. We shall need a lot of those guides and other multiplyers who can assist people to move safely online. Only through this form of taking people with you on the move towards online public services we shall close the gap of the digital divide. It is probably going to widen before we can narrow it again, unless we breeding digital zebras in a rapid way.
(Image: SCCON 2024-10, Berlin)

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Digital Museum

Paris has lots of museums to visit. At times, this can lead to a kind of mental overload. The ” Musée Marmottan Monet, in Paris allows to take home a digital and printed copy of your preferred, your own curated collection of images from the museum. This is a great learning experience. You scan the number of the item you want to include and a specialized application retrieves the image of the painting or object from their database into the App. After the visit you take a break in the café in the garden and sort your collection and if you like have it printed within a couple of minutes after you paid for the print or digital version. Upon special request I was told that I am allowed to share the link to the small booklet even on the web (Link to pdf below).
Since the visit to the Musée Marmottan Monet we have come back to the digital and printed versions several times and reading of accompanying texts and perfect quotations of origin make learning about art a fun experience. Going back to lived experiences makes more lasting impressions on our memories. Knowledge coupled with emotions is a powerful way to memorize. Sharing the experience with other persons like the readers of this blog is an additional advantage. Attentive readers of the blog entries will find references to many of the themes dealt with over the years in this series of blog entries. Such topics are: gender and art, technology and society, reflections on time, life courses, inequality, art history, funding of artists, lifelong learning or beauty.
(Booklet below in German LINK-pdf of 6MB.  The app allows many language versions. You can produce those yourself from you collection within the App) 

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Page Turner

Modern digital technologies turn pages for you. Just with one touch.
Search functions that are implemented in the software allow you to search for any keyword you are keen to follow-up on. These are valuable advantages of digital versions of books or other content. Once you adapt the brightness of the screen you can scroll comfortably through hundreds of pages. These books are called flipbooks and there are a number of editors specialised on these versions.
In combination with a blog format of publishing online first and then transforming content into flipbooks or even printed versions, www.MPL-publisher.com  offers a nice feature to host such flipbooks. It is comfortable to know that the content has a unique address on the web, which you can share freely and use from all sorts of devices including your smartphone, tablet, desktop or notebook. The collection of my images I even watch sometimes on an even larger TV-screen or a beamer for teaching purposes.
Yes, we can (!) teach from a smartphone. Learners have opted for the small screens a long time ago. -“hey – teachers, leave us kids alone. We don’t need no education, we don’t need no thought control“. Flipbooks combine the classic form and feeling to turn a page as accomplished progress with the fast access to keywords that spread over several pages of the book.
My latest version of blog entries from 1st of January to 30th of June 2024 is at your fingertip now. (here, allow for a really long download time!). A screenshot is provided below of page 114 of a total of 390 (OMG) on a notebook screen. The search list is shown for the keyword “wage” as an example.
A shorter reader on “Society and AI” is available here as flipbook (29 pages).

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Library Search

Libraries have not only lots of books on shelves and in storage places, but scientific research makes use of lots of scientific journals as well. The direct access to these journals shortens the search for information. We tend to focus on certain sets of journals, which we follow regularly as well as some random choices. Libraries like the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin have the advantage of access to multiple scientific disciplines under the same roof. This facilitates cross-disciplinary research with access to the best available knowledge. This resembles university libraries where also a broad spectrum of disciplines is taught.

Moving from paper-based publishing to electronic publishing, it is obvious that libraries are part of this move. Printed journals disappear and the electronic versions are made available to the readers. 2 issues arise: (1) adapt your search strategy to e-search and reading on screens and (2) accept that your research leaves traces (and potential tracking of your activities) of what information is really used. User statistics are likely to have consequences in the medium term. All libraries want to know who are my readers and what kind of search strategies do they apply. Similar to some of the best scientific results that are an outcome of by chance findings the search in libraries is enriched through „random effects“ of search. On-shelf access to printed copies allows a rapid overview of a whole year of issues beyond the abstracts always available online anyway. It is so much faster than the online search that we shall miss the paper-based issues of journals for quite some time. At the time of artificial intelligence everywhere reading and writing might be overvalued as economists might say. Our search algorithms and use of libraries is evolving at the same time. The by-chance or random inspiration might move to other places.

library shelf with empty journals‘ stock
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Digital Estonia

The progress of Estonia in going digital is quite advanced. The electronic identity card which allows data to be linked to health data and accounts or banking gives an impression of how far-reaching digitalization may go. Great steps have been taken to guide the population on the way to move towards the digital (only) world. Learning and coaching of a huge amount need to take place so that people do not abandon or get lost on the path towards “everything digital”. For the so-called digital natives, who have grown up with the sound of their smartphone at the bedside all the time, this move feels “natural”. Some experienced or silver workers got on track, if they were accompanied in suitable forms. The 65+ population might find it harder to adapt to the permanent use of digital devices for not only getting around in your city, but also to do your tax declaration, pay your dues and vote in elections.
Digitalization is not a goal in itself. It has advantages to reach communities in remote places or islands, but it might alienate older persons that have no other person around to assist them in the digital only world. An easy way to get some social science data to inform the debate is to refer to Eurostat and the surveys with information about the “overall life satisfaction” of people (EU-SILC). Checking for some major countries of the EU and neighbours of Estonia with less digitalization the differences are rather small. In terms of overall life satisfaction (16+ years old) Estonia has been catching up to the EU-average mainly between 2013 and 2021. Since then, stagnation at the EU-average is what the data tell. A quick testing of the hypothesis that the older persons (65+) might not see the past evolution as rosy is reflected in the EU-data as well. Good pensions seem to drive the “happiness” of older persons in the EU more than good digitalization. Eventually the two features of a society will have to go hand in hand to improve life satisfaction to higher levels. (Image: Data Eurostat EU-SILC Life satisfaction 65+, selected countries 2013-2023, retrieved on 2024-4-23, comparison with table all ages here, Data source)

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AI Reader

In the middle of the hype around AI it is useful to take stock of the reflection and evolution of AI. In my own analyses and writings on AI it evident that a narrowing of focus has taken place. Whereas before 2022 the writing dealt more with digital technologies in general. The links to the literature on the social construction of technologies was obvious. Algorithms and AI was a part of the broader topic of society and technology.
This has changed. The public debate is focused on “everything AI now”. We look at technological developments largely through the lens of AI now. Hence, my focus of assessments of technology from a societal perspective follows this trend. In a collection of blog entries on AI we try to demonstrate the far reaching changes that have started to have an impact on us. In the last few months the all encompassing concern about AI’s effect on us needs full attention of social scientists, policy makers, companies and the public at large. We can no longer leave this topic to the software engineers alone. By the way, they themselves ask us to get involved and take the latest advances in AI more seriously.
As a “flipbook” the online reading is rather comfortable (Link to flipbook publisher MPL). The pdf or epub files of the blog entries allow to directly follow the links to sources in webpages or other publications (AI and Society 2p 2024-4-18). The cycles of analyses and comments have become faster. Traditional book writing suffers from time lags that risk to make pubications outdated rather quickly. Dynamic ebook writing might bridge the gap between time to reflect and speed to publish or inform the wider public. The first update as .pdf-file is available here: AI and Society(2).

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AI by AI

It has become a common starting point to use electronic devices and online encyclopedias to search for definitions. Let us just do this for artificial intelligence. The open platform of Wikipedia returns on the query of “artificial intelligence” the following statement as a definition: “AI … is intelligence exhibited by machines, particularly computer systems …“. It is not like human intelligence, but tries to emulate it or even tries to improve on it. Part of any definition is also the range of applications of it in a broad range of scientific fields, economic sectors or public and private spheres of life. This shows the enormous scope of applications that keeps rapidly growing with the ease of access to software and applications of AI.
How does AI define itself? How is AI defined by AI? Putting the question to ChatGPT 3.5 in April 2024 I got the following fast return. (See image). ChatGPT provides a more careful definition as the “crowd” or networked intelligence of Wikipedia. AI only “refers to the simulation” of HI processes by machines”. Examples of such HI processes include the solving of problems and understanding of language. In doing this AI creates systems and performs tasks that usually or until now required HI. There seems to be a technological openness embedded in the definition of AI by AI that is not bound to legal restrictions of its use. The learning systems approach might or might not allow to respect the restrictions set to the systems by HI. Or, do such systems also learn how to circumvent the restrictions set by HI systems to limit AI systems? For the time being we test the boundaries of such systems in multiple fields of application from autonomous driving systems, video surveillance, marketing tools or public services. Potentials as well as risks will be defined in more detail in this process of technological development. Society has to accompany this process with high priority since fundamental human rights are at issue. Potentials for assistance of humans are equally large. The balance will be crucial.

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AI Collusion

In most applications of AI there is one system of AI, for example a specialized service, that performs in isolation from other services. More powerful systems, however, allow for the combination of AI services. This may be useful in case of integrating services focusing on specialized sensors to gain a more complete impression of the performance of a system. As soon as two and more AI systems become integrated the risk of unwanted or illegal collusion may occur.
Collusion is defined in the realm of economic theory as the secret, undocumented, often illegal, restriction of competition originating from at least two otherwise rival competitors. In the realm of AI collusion has been defined by Motwani et al. (2024) as “teams of communicating generative AI agents solve joint tasks”. The cooperation of agents as well as the sharing of of previously exclusive information increase the risks of violation of rights of privacy or security. The AI related risks consist also in the dilution of responsibility. It becomes more difficult to identify the origin of fraudulent use of data like personal information or contacts. Just imagine using Alexa and Siri talking to each other to develop another integrated service as a simplified example.
The use of steganography techniques, i.e. the secret embedding of code into an AI system or image distribution, can protect authorship as well as open doors for fraudulent applications. The collusion of AI systems will blur legal borders and create multiple new issues to resolve in the construction and implementation of AI agents. New issues of trust in technologies will arise if no common standards and regulations will be defined. We seem to be just at the entry of the new brave world or 1984 in 2024.
(Image: KI MS-Copilot: Three smartphones in form of different robots stand upright on a desk in a circle. Each displays text on a computer image.)

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AI input

AI is crucially dependent on the input it is built on. This has been already the foundation principle of the powerful search engines like Google that have become to dominate the commercial part of the internet. The crawling of pages on the world wide web and classifying/ranking them with a number of criteria has been the successful business model. The content production was and is done by billions of people across the globe. Open access facilitates the amount of data available.
The business case for AI is not much different. At the 30th anniversary of the “Robots Exclusion Standard” we have to build on these original ideas to rethink our input strategies for AI as well. If there are parts of our input we do not AI to use in its algorithms we have to put up red flags in form of unlisting parts of the information we allow for public access. This is standard routine we might believe, but everything on the cloud might have made it much easier for owners of the cloud space to “crawl” your information, pictures or media files. Some owners of big data collections have decided to sell the access and use to their treasures. AI can then learn from these data.
Restrictions become also clear. More up-to-date information might not be available for AI-treatment. AI might lack the most recent information, if it a kind of breaking news. The strength of AI lies in the size of data input it can handle and treat or recombine. The deficiency of AI is not to know whether the information it uses (is in the data base) is valid or trustworthy. Wrong or outdated input due to a legal change or just-in-time change will be beyond its scope. Therefore, the algorithms have a latent risk involved, i.e. a bias towards the status quo. But the learning algorithms can deal with this and come up with a continued learning or improvement of routines. In such a process it is crucial to have ample feedback on the valid or invalid outcome of the algorithm. Controlling and evaluating outcomes becomes the complementary task for humans as well as AI. Checks and balances like in democratic political systems become more and more important.

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Sepsis

Sepsis is a major cause of mortality. Therefore, early detection of sepsis is of high importance. Antibiotics constitute a powerful antidote. However, the application of antibiotics without need, i.e. for purely risk reduction in general, has side effects in antibiotics losing their effectiveness later on.
The paper published in The Lancet Digital Health by van der Weijden et al. (2024) reports on the effort to provide an open source access to a calculator of early onset of sepsis (Link). The Neonatal early-onset sepsis calculator developed by Kaiser Permanente builds on the use on the risk carried by mothers like time since membrane rupture, regional infection risks of mothers per 1000 population and the infants presentation at birth. It is important to point out the combination of risks put into the calculator. New systems of artificial intelligence might equally make predictions or recommendations about the application of antibiotics implicitly making use of such a calculator without disclosure.
From a sociological point of view it is interesting to scrutinize the indicators used in the calculation. The approximation of mothers carrying a sepsis risk relies on national, regional or better local indicators. This information is rarely accessible to the public. The choice of a hospital, speed of access to it in case of membrane rupture as well as staffing come into the calculation of an overall risk of sepsis.
It is great to follow the progress of digital health and the increased transparency of critical health decisions at the earliest stages of the life course. Inflammation as a precursor of sepsis should be taken serious at all stages of the life course. (Image calculation based on Kaiser Permanente digital tool Link)

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Election Re-election

Politics is a lot about decision making, coalition building and communication strategies. Therefore, there have been well established election and re-election cycles in all democracies, even the so-called illiberal pseudo-democracies. The time span between elections is itself a constituent part of democratic practice. 4 years of office for an elected parliamentarian seems to be common sense across many countries. More intensive participation and election schedules have advantages in tighter checks and balances, but may have disadvantages with respect to democratic fatigue, i.e. the time and effort needed to stay informed and cast votes. “Liquid democracy” is a concept of decision making which requires highly engaged persons willing to get involved beyond average commitments. Delegation to politicians within parties and parliaments remains an effective version of democratic practice. Checks against corruption and illegal practices is a necessary condition of each system of delegation. Rapidly changing governments are similarly perceived as a risk to democracies as the repeated call to the ballot box might be unsettling more than calming the spirits.
Berlin in 2024 (like 2023) provides another lesson on the sense of elections and re-elections. The repetition of parts of the federal election in parts of Berlin was required by the constitutional court. Due to failures in correct provision of access to voting and voting material results might have been biased. According to an online reporting by the local radio station (rbb24) based on the official electoral statistics, the participation in the re-election decreased from 75% to 51% in the 455 out of 2.256 districts that repeated the election. There seems to be a high level of democratic fatigue in these districts where the re-election in general accounts of participation in elections marks a low point in achievement. It appears worthwhile to question the judicial decision to repeat the election to the drastic reduction of representativity of the re-election. In statistical terms we trade one form of bias against another form of bias with an unclear overall outcome.
Organising elections is a professional task and requires specific competences. As this is at the heart of democracies, we need to improve our organisation and surveillance of this fundamental democratic process. Repetition seems to be worse than other second or third best solutions. Investing in democracy starts also at the ballot box. Electronic voting is not a panacea, but might be part of the solution. (Image source: Landeswahlleiter Berlin, left: Erststimmenmehrheit, right Wahlbeteiligung, combined election + re-election)