Panel Discussion: AI 4 Qualitative Research - Critical Perspectives

The advance of AI raises fundamental questions about its capacity to handle the complexities of cultural nuance, lived experience, and critical analysis central to qualitative research processes.

This panel discussion brings together perspectives from Film Studies, Literary Studies, Climatology, Medicine, and Historical Musicology to critically examine the real-world implications beyond the ongoing AI hype.

The interdisciplinary discussion will focus on key questions central to the current debate:
How do computational approaches alter established interpretive practices in the humanities, social sciences and cultural studies, and what standards for methodological validity must be met?
In what ways can AI be used to analyze qualitative data to uncover patterns of environmental inequality? What ethical frameworks are essential for applying AI to sensitive patient narratives in medicine, particularly concerning data privacy and the mitigation of algorithmic bias?
What new analytical possibilities, alongside potential interpretive blind spots, arise from applying computational methods to complex qualitative sources such as visual media, sonic artifacts, or written testimonies?
To what extent does the use of AI ultimately augment or undermine the interpretive authority and situated knowledge of researchers in qualitative contexts?

Participants:

• Isabelle Bloch
• Valentina Fedchenko
• Julie Deshayes
• Matthias Steinle
• Xavier Fresquet

Moderated by Andreas Sudmann, University of Bonn