Topic: Setting the AI Agenda

When: 25 September at 12.00-13.15

Where: Online 

Speakers: 

• Annika Fredén, Associate Senior Lecturer in Political Science at Lund University
• Bastiaan Bruinsma, Postdoctoral Researcher at the Division of Data Science and AI, Chalmers University of Technology

Moderator: Bibi Imre-Millei Doctoral student, Department of Political Science, Lund University

Spoken language: English

Abstract

Our study examines the development of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) meta-debate before and after the release of ChatGPT. From the perspective of agenda-setting theory, we propose that it is an elite outside of party politics that is leading the debate -- i.e. that the politicians are silent when it comes to this rapid development. We also suggest that the debate has become more substantive and risk-oriented in recent years. To investigate this claim, we draw on an original dataset of elite-level documents from the early 2010s to the present, using op-eds published in leading Swedish newspapers. By conducting a qualitative content analysis of these materials, our preliminary findings lend support to the expectation that an academic, rather than a political elite is steering the debate and that the release of ChatGPT marks a shift in tone.

Bio

Annika Fredén is an associate professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science, Lund University. Her research concerns experimental and quantitative methods in the study of political behaviour, in particular opinion formation and voting behavior. She also does research on decision-making in bureaucracy and leads a project on applying AI technology to the study of politics, funded by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg foundation within the wasp-hs program. 

Bastiaan Bruinsma is a postdoctoral researcher at the Division of Data Science and AI, Chalmers University of Technology. He received his Ph.D. degree in political science and sociology and has recently worked on various subjects in the computational social sciences. His main research interests are the analysis of large databases of unstructured texts, understanding the policies surrounding AI, and political methodology.

Co-authors include:

• Moa Johansson, Department of Computer science, Chalmers University of Technology
• Kajsa Hansson, Department of Political Science, Lund University
• Pasko Kisic-Merino, Department of Political Studies, Karlstad University
• Denitsa Saynova, Department of Computer science, Chalmers University of Technology