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Ordinary AI Risks
(Primary focus for AY '26-'27)
This project investigates perceptions of "ordinary AI risks" as personal and social problems.
Juxtaposed against the existential threat narratives that dominate popular discourse, ordinary AI risks are those that disrupt and destabilize daily life. Ordinary AI risks are things like workforce displacement, skill erosion, embedded bias, information distortation, and data center development within one's community. Using a blend of research methods, we investigate how different populations directly affected by specific AI-related risks perceive those risks for themselves and others. The project team has developed an AI Risk Attribution survey instrument, run pilot tests to understand perceptions of creative workforce displacement and academic deskilling, and is now working to test hypotheses, expand the research scope, and deepen understanding through in-depth interviews.
Additional Active Projects
S.C.O.R.E
S.C.O.R.E
Led by Savannah Bastian and Alyssa Davis, this project explores intimate connections people form with generative AI models.
Student AI Use Survey
Student AI Use Survey
This student-led project, initated by Vishnu Vanapalli and Soc AI Lab alum Cameron Carr, investigates how educators and students perceive the prevalance of illicit AI use, asking which group, if either, is more accurate in their perceptions.
The AI Synergy Study
The AI Synergy Study
Led by Blake Powell with support from professor Bianca Manago and Soc AI Lab Director Jenny Davis, this project tests how AI affects task-group dynamics and to what effect.
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