A Hinge for Ethnographic Interventions in AI Systems

This chapter explores how ethnographers can play a critical but also constructive role in AI research and development in scientific fields. By analyzing how futures with AI are imagined, where AI systems come from, and how they unfold in everyday life, ethnographers can help to better understand what assumptions, norms, and imaginations shape the design of such systems and why their implementation in practice often turns out differently than expected. The chapter suggests the metaphor of the hinge as an analytical and reflexive tool to guide and validate an attentive return to insight about the ways the past, present, and future constitutively shape AI. Drawing on ethnographic studies from the US and Japan, the work illustrates how the hinge as an analytical tool can reveal the connections between these temporal dimensions, highlighting its utility for both ethnographic research and interdisciplinary AI collaborations. Additionally, the hinge functions as a reflexive tool, guiding anthropologists in ethnographic collaboration in AI research and development. Ultimately, anthropologists can contribute not only to critical reflection but also to collaborative decision-making processes for, and intervention into, the making of AI systems.