No such thing as society? Lessons from AI in the street

image credit: Broadway Market, Ambient Information Systems for AI in the Street (October 2024)

Date: 2 December 2025
Time: 12:30pm - 2pm 
Location: Sociology Seminar Room

In this talk, Noortje Marres will discuss findings from the collaborative project 'AI in the street' in order to reflect on a fundamental shift in the relations between technology and society in the wake of the AI tsunami. 

While the digital platforms of the 2010s could still be defined as 'socio-technical' architectures, contemporary AI is first and foremost defined by its withdrawal from social arrangements.

The AI in the street project used creative methods to facilitate public engagement with AI in city streets in the UK and Australia. While the project was successful in this respect, it also found that AI is defined by absence rather than presence in this type of environment. Unlike other relevant digital technologies, such as ANPR or online platforms, AI lacks a social interface in the street. 

Reflecting on this and other project findings, Professor Marres will argue that AI signals the undoing of the 'socio-technical' as an analytic and normative horizon for innovation governance.
 

Speaker biography:

Noortje Marres is a Professor in Science, Technology and Society in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies at the University of Warwick. She studied sociology and philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and the Ecole des Mines (Paris). 

Noortje has published two books, Material Participation (2012) and Digital Sociology (2017) and she has led various research projects investigating public controversies about science and innovation, in areas such as renewable energy, automated mobility and AI. Noortje is currently completing a monograph that examines tech trials "beyond the laboratory" as critical interfaces between science, engineering, nature and society.

Access note: Historic building. The seminar room is accessed via two flights of steps/a lift and then a further two flights of stairs accessed through a heavy set of doors. There is no step-free access. The lift is not accessible to wheelchair users, but may assist with other mobility issues.