On the Politics and Uses of Generative AI

This offer is tailored towards anthropologists who try to gain a first grasp of what developments of ever more capable but yet fallacious and imperfect AI tools mean to our discipline and modes of inquiry. Avoiding both a technophobic stance and technophilic naivety, this course allows for collective exploration at the intersections of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and anthropology as a subject and mode of inquiry. Offered by an advanced student in Digital Humanities and practitioner developing corporate AI services (Endric) and an anthropologist teaching subjects at interface of culture and technology (Stefanie), we have designed this course for a non-technical audience who use ethnographic methods and like to explore the potential uses of AI tools for their research. We pursue two aims with this workshop. In the first part, workshop participants will deepen their understanding of how AI technologies are reshaping the study and practice of anthropology, how to critique and contextualize AI technologies within broader socio-cultural frameworks, exploring ecological costs and corporate power in shaping AI’s transformative potential. Second, participants will leave with a stronger conceptual grasp of what kinds of potentially useful AI tools exist and gain practical ideas for integrating AI not only into their writing routines, but also other elements of researchers’ working routines like transcription, data analysis, applications and presentations.

Where:       MPI for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale); New Seminar Room (New Building)
When:        Thursday, 23 Apr 2026, to
                    Friday, 24 Apr 2026

Who:           Stefanie Mauksch, Endric Merker

Register by 31 March 2026 on Moodle.