Visualization for AI Augmented Sociology
Online lecture by Mathieu Jacomy, PhD in Techno-Anthropology and Assistant Professor at Aalborg University (Denmark), and Anders Kristian Munk, Professor of Computational Anthropology and Director of the Observatory for Human-Centered Engineering (ECHOlab) at the Technical University of Denmark. Both are researchers in a one-month writing residency at the IEA de Paris in February 2026, as part of the "Distinguished Fellowship" program developed in collaboration with PostGenAI@Paris.
Presentation
The research project led by Mathieu Jacomy and Anders Kristian Munk aims to develop AI-augmented qualitative research methods capable of analyzing large-scale social phenomena in real-time while maintaining interpretative depth.
The focus is on the "observatory-style" mapping of controversies, which involves the continuous monitoring of socio-technical controversy evolution through the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced visualization techniques.
During their residency at the Paris IAS (IEA de Paris) via the PostGenAI cluster, the objective is to create tools for computational social sciences, specifically "atlas systems" that visualize massive sets of unstructured data using embedding models and LLMs. The primary challenges involve adapting LLMs for rigorous social research, managing AI limitations such as hallucinations, and developing specialized prompting expertise for sociological analysis.
This approach addresses the bottleneck of traditional qualitative methods, which often produce insights too late to impact rapidly evolving socio-technical landscapes. Furthermore, it fosters democratic engagement in emerging controversies at the very moment when public input is most critical.