10.11. 2025 16.00–18.00 at Helsinki Collegium Common Room, Fabianinkatu 24 A, 3rd floor.
From chatbots to synthetic media, AI often refers to systems that learn from data to generate predictions, text, images, or decisions. These tools have clear uses in quantitative work (data science and large-scale analytics), sometimes sidelining interpretive or participatory approaches. Yet the same models can also extend qualitative social science methods: language models that co-produce field diaries, clustering tools that preserve narrative context, and chatbot “informants” that reflect the cultures embedded in their training data.
Our event brings together perspectives from philosophy and social science to examine these developments. Pohjonen, Knuutila and de Seta will give an overview of new approaches, especially in applying AI to ethnographic research. Samuli Reijula will discuss both the potential and limits of such techniques, including opacity, bias and the risk of losing context.
The event connects to the forthcoming Routledge edited volume Synthetic Situations, which gathers methodological experiments at the intersection of AI and ethnography. It is organised by the AI Ethnography network, funded by an HSSH Catalyst grant.
The discussion will be followed by a reception with drinks and nibbles.
Speaker bios:
Samuli Reijula is a university lecturer in theoretical philosophy at the University of Helsinki. His work lies at the intersection of philosophy of science, cognitive science, and the science of science. Reijula’s research examines problem-solving processes in scientific groups and collectives, how cognitive diversity shapes inquiry, and how computational models can illuminate the epistemic dynamics of science. He is a founding organizer of the European Network for the Science of Science and co-founder of the Institutional Epistemology Workshop series. He currently leads the project "Scientist in the loop - Automation of scientific discovery (SCI-AI)" funded by the Research Council of Finland.
Gabriele de Seta is, technically, a sociologist. He is a Researcher at the University of Bergen, where he leads the ALGOFOLK project (“Algorithmic folklore: The mutual shaping of vernacular creativity and automation”) funded by a Trond Mohn Foundation Starting Grant (2024-2028). Gabriele holds a PhD from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica and at the University of Bergen, where he was part of the ERC-funded project “Machine Vision in Everyday Life”. His research, grounded in qualitative and ethnographic methods, focuses on digital media practices, sociotechnical infrastructures, and vernacular creativity in the Chinese-speaking world. He is also interested in experimental, creative, and collaborative approaches to knowledge production.
Dr Matti Pohjonen currently works as a Senior Researcher for the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities (HSSH), University of Helsinki, working with methodological development on the use of internet and social media data, including debates on generative AI and LLMs. He also currently co-leads the EU Horizon-funded project ARM, which focuses on information suppression and information freedoms in China, Russia, Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Dr Aleksi Knuutila is a University Researcher at the Department of Sociology at the University of Helsinki and the Helsinki Institute for Social Sciences and Humanities. After his doctorate in the Digital Anthropology programme at University College London, Knuutila’s research has focused on online harms, such as misinformation and harassment, and on how political groups take advantage of contemporary information environments. His current research projects focus on developing tools and infrastructure for journalists working on conflicts and applying generative AI to interpretative research workflows.