Call for Papers
Decoding Artificial Sociality: Technologies, Dynamics, Implications
Special Issue in New Media & Society
Journal: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/nms
Special Issue Editors:
Iliana Depounti, Loughborough University, United Kingdom, i.depounti@lboro.ac.uk
Simone Natale, University of Turin, Italy, simone.natale@unito.it
Deadline for abstract submission: September 30, 2023
The emergence and development of technologies enabling communications between humans and machines sparked a rethinking of the scope and implications of Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this context, software that mimics social interaction is becoming available to vast masses of users around the world. Yet we still lack interpretative frameworks and conceptual tools that go beyond the analysis of specific platforms to capture new kinds of social experiences and engagements that these technologies facilitate. This special issue aims to fill this gap. We invite contributors to interrogate the implications, dynamics, opportunities and risks of “Artificial Sociality,” i.e. technologies and practices able to sustain the impression of social competence and behavior in machines. These may include tools and software such as large language models like ChatGPT, voice assistants, virtual influencers, social bots and companionship chatbots such as Replika.
The special issue invites empirical as well as theoretical contributions that provide stronger foundations to define, understand and critically analyze emerging modalities of social interactions with AI technologies. Featured articles will address questions such as:
- How do specific platforms, interfaces and computer programs build an impression of sociality, and how do users respond to this? How do algorithms and interfaces in the design of communicative AI technologies stimulate social appropriations and projections in users?
- What are the ethical, social, and cultural implications of artificial sociality?
- What are the risks associated with the application of artificial sociality to areas including marketing, political communication, news media, and social media?
- How do technologies that automate sociality reproduce or create cultural and social bias for issues including gender, race, class?
- How do national, linguistic, cultural, religious contexts inform how artificial sociality technologies are employed and appropriated by different kinds of users?
- What are the ethical implications of assigning social roles to machines?
- What are the implications of mobilizing data about users’ social behaviors to implement artificial sociality technologies?
TIMELINE
30 September 2023: Abstract submission deadline
31 October 2023: Decisions out to authors invited to submit full paper
31 March 2024: Deadline for full papers
2025: Tentative special issue publication
SUBMISSION
Proposals should include an extended abstract of up to 1,000 words (references included) including a short explanation of how the paper relates to the special issue theme, as well as a 100-150 words bio note of the author(s). Please submit your proposal via email no later than 30 September 2023 to special issue editors Iliana Depounti, i.depounti@lboro.ac.uk and Simone Natale, simone.natale@unito.it, with the subject line “New Media and Society Special Issue: Artificial Sociality.”
Invited paper submissions of 8,000 words will be due 31 March 2024 and will be submitted directly to the submission site for New Media and Society (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/nms) where they will undergo peer review following the usual procedures of New Media & Society. Therefore, the invitation to submit a full article does not guarantee acceptance into the special issue.