Human and social sciences at INRIA: the obvious choice

"Faced with the growing impact of digital technology on our societies, Inria is structuring a new ambition: to fully integrate human and social sciences (SHS) into its scientific strategy. Jean-Frédéric Gerbeau, Inria's Deputy Director General for Science, and Juliette Sénéchal, Deputy Scientific Director in charge of SHS, detail the issues, challenges and priorities of this new dynamic for the institute."

There is no shortage of justifications, and INRIA has long demonstrated its interest in SHS; the time had come to formalize and structure this interest:

• The SEMIS and ADN projects, in collaboration with sociologists or philosophers, on subjects of sustainable development and the geopolitical or environmental impact of digital technology.
  
  
• As part of the National AI Strategy, the creation of LaborIA - a research-action laboratory dedicated to the impact of artificial intelligence in the workplace. - with the Global Partnership for Artificial Intelligence(GPIA).

Inria's university partners are also involved in

• DemoCIS, supported by the University of Lille, on the evolution of democracies,
• Sphinx, supported by Sorbonne Université, on the preservation of cultural heritage,
• IntegrIA, supported by Sorbonne Nouvelle, which aims to integrate AI into the training of 25,000 SHS students.

Faced with all these new activities, it was clear that INRIA's policy and direction in the field of social sciences and humanities needed to be clarified.

Inria's SHS priorities

• Digital regulation and governance;
• Information manipulation and "cognitive warfare" techniques;
  
• The impact of digital technology on work and, more generally, on social organizations.

For the full article: Thinking digital differently: the rise of human and social sciences at Inria

Illustration: Tung Lam - Pixabay

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