[EASST-Eurograd] Fri, March 27 Community Call: "AI and the Platformization of the Sciences"

[Matias Milia via Eurograd]

Dear all,

The SocioEnvironmental Knowledge Commons (SEEKCommons.org) project invites you to the first community call of the year. It will take place at the end of the month with Professor Phil Mirowski.

Title

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"AI and the Platformization of the Sciences"

Date

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FRI 27 MARCH 2026 - 5:00 PM (CET) / 12:00 PM (EST) / 9:00 AM (PST) 

Abstract

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In this talk, Professor Mirowski will guide us through his exploration of a new phase in the commercialization of the sciences with Artificial Intelligence (AI). He will ask us to consider what counts as "knowledge" in the context of generative AI, while providing us with an entry point into the historical foundations of this economic and technoscientific phenomenon. Drawing on his recent work on the "platformization" of scientific production, he will conduct an analysis of the DeepMind "AlphaFold" case to develop his argument.

Bio

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Philip Mirowski was appointed the Carl Koch Professor of Economics and the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Notre Dame in 1990. He has been Professor Emeritus since 2022. His books are too numerous to list, but we would recommend for those who are interested in this talk: "Machine Dreams: Economics Becomes a Cyborg Science" (2001);

"The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective" (with Dieter Plehwe, 2009); "ScienceMart: Privatizing American Science" (2011); "The Knowledge We have Lost in Information: A History of Information and Knowledge in Economics" (with Edward Nik-Khah, 2017); and, more recently, "Nine Lives of Neoliberalism" (with Dieter Plehwe and Quinn Slobodian, 2020).

The series is open to public participation, and registration is required:

https://notredame.zoom.us/meeting/register/GMFRlCt_RRezgXtyEZGTow#/registration

Before coming to the talk, we recommend that you read "The Evolution of Human Science" (originally published as "Catching Crumbs…") by Ted Chiang. It is a small request from our speaker. You can find it here: https://tinyurl.com/Chiang-2000. 

Complete details can be found on this flyer: https://tinyurl.com/CC-Mirowski 

For more info about the series, visit: https://seekcommons.org/community-calls.html 

We hope you can join us!

Warm regards,

The NSF SEEKCommons Project

Matias F. Milia (He/Him/His)