The document discusses the transformation of information dissemination due to digital technologies and generative AI, highlighting the blurred lines between human and artificial communication. It emphasizes the role of human and artificial agents in co-producing knowledge and the need for digital literacy to navigate this emerging socio-technical landscape. Additionally, it raises concerns about regulation, responsibility, and the ethics of journalism in the age of AI.

1. Synthetic
Socio-Technical
Systems:
Poiêsis as
Meaning Making
Prof. Federica Russo
Freudenthal Institute,
Utrecht University
SOLARIS project, Coordinator
Joint work with
Piercosma Bisconti and Andrew

2. Disinformation 2.0
and 3.0
• Digital technologies had already
transformed the spreading of
false and misleading information
• Social media have facilited and
greatly amplified phenomena such
as micro-targeting
• Digital technologies also
created new ontological space,
creating an onlife dimension
• What is changing with generative
AI?
2

3. Generative
AI:
a divide
3

4. Interacting through vs
interacting with
• Human agents, artefacts, and the world: how
interactions change depending on the type of
technology
• Interacting through
• Instrumentality
• Mediation
• Message delivery
• Interacting with
• Co-operation
• Easiness of communication makes digital
artefacts as quasi-others
• Interact as if AI was human agent
• AI is moved to the foreground of sociaty 4

5. Synthetic
socio-
technical
systems
5

6. Socio-technical systems 2.0
Technology and society stand in a reciprocal relation
Systems are socio-technical
The newest generation of technologies qualify as social
actors:
They take more social roles, they change social practices
Socio-technical system have
become synthetic
The border between human and
artificial behaviour /
communication is blurred
Their functioning is different
6

7. The network of AI-generated
content
7

8. Human,
artificial,
synthetic
meaning
making
8

9. Human and artificial epistemic agents produce
knowledge
An epistemic point:
Knowledge production is not a prerogative of
us human(s)
Technologies, the environment, materiality
and embodiment, situatedness … are all
essential elements
A normative point
Implications for design, regulation, and
governance
Rethinking responsibility in the light of
co-production 9
The concept of
poiêsis

10. Modes of
co-production
• Use of LLMs has become so
widespread and so quickly
• We need to understand these novel
modes of meaning co-production,
and beyond LLMs
• What we co-producing with AI:
• Text,
• Speech,
• Image,
• Videos
• How we co-produce: poiêsis 10

11. Statistical
parrots with
poiêtic
powers
• It has been correctly
pointed out that LLMs
do not understand or
genuinely create
original thinking
• Still they generate
content
• Through this
generation LLMs
contribute to meaning
making, building /
establishing / 11

12. The
challenges
ahead
12

13. Digital
literacy
• What plans are in
place to equip
citizens with basic
literacy about the
presence and potential
use of LLMs and other
Gen-AI tools?
13

14. Empowering
digital
citizenship
and education
• Self-awareness:
• Who am I in the infosphere and
what’s my network like?
• Caution:
• Is there enough ground to believe
in social media content?
• Proactiveness:
• How can I make my close
environment safe(er)?
• Argumentation skills:
• Do I know how to judge quality and
source of information?
14

15. Regulatory
efforts
• How are we regulating their
development and use?
• Is the ‘human-centered’ and
‘trustworthy-AI’ approach of
the EU on the right track?
15

16. Journalism and
media
responsibilitie
s in the era of
AI
• A new ethos?
• The value of
visuals
• The power of
arguments
16

17. Disinformation can be addressed at different
joints of the network
17

18. Synthetic
Socio-
Technical
Systems:
Poiêsis as
Meaning
Making
Prof. Federica Russo
Freudenthal Institute,
Utrecht University
SOLARIS project, Coordinator
Joint work with
Piercosma Bisconti and Andrew
McIntyre
Thank you for your attention
This presentation has been partly
prepared