An initiative of the European Commission

AI in Social Sciences​ & Humanities

SCIANCE is gathering evidence on scientific challenges, AI capabilities, infrastructures and emerging practices in “AI in Social Sciences & Humanities​​”​, supporting the identification of strategic priorities for RAISE.

Context and scope​

Social Sciences and Humanities examine human societies, cultures, behaviours, institutions and historical developments. This review covers a diverse set of research domains including economics, finance and management, governance, political science and law, sociology, education and communication, cognitive science, psychology and linguistics, literary studies and philosophy, archaeology and history, human geography and demography, and culture, heritage and the arts. The analysis explores both how AI can support research in these fields and how these disciplines contribute to understanding the societal implications of AI itself.

State-of-the-Art Insights​

Scientific research challenges​

  • Understanding complex social and cultural systems
  • Working with fragmented, proprietary and biased datasets
  • Preserving context and interpretation in computational analysis
  • Assessing societal impacts of technological change
  • Supporting evidence-based governance and public policy

AI approaches and maturity​

  • Operational: Computational text analysis, natural language processing, social-media analytics and automated information extraction
  • Emerging: Computational social science, digital humanities, cultural heritage analytics and AI-supported policy analysis
  • Frontier: Generative AI for cultural and creative research, studies of AI-mediated knowledge production, human-AI interaction and AI-supported societal foresight

Structural barriers​

  • Restricted access to social, cultural and platform-generated datasets
  • Representation biases and uneven dataset coverage
  • Explainability, reproducibility and validation challenges
  • Unequal access to advanced AI infrastructure and computing
  • Ethical, societal and governance concerns surrounding AI deployment

European ecosystem​

Europe has developed a strong SSH infrastructure ecosystem through CLARIN, DARIAH, CESSDA, SSHOC-related initiatives, cultural heritage infrastructures and open-science communities. These infrastructures provide access to data, standards, tools and collaborative networks supporting AI-enabled SSH research.

Emerging trends​

  • Human-centred and trustworthy AI​
  • AI governance and democratic resilience​
  • Computational social science at scale​
  • Digital cultural heritage and digital humanities​
  • Improved access to social and cultural data​
  • Stronger integration of SSH expertise into AI development and deployment​

Outlook

AI is creating new opportunities for analysing social, cultural and historical phenomena at unprecedented scale. At the same time, SSH plays a critical role in understanding, assessing and governing the societal implications of AI, ensuring that future innovation remains trustworthy, inclusive and aligned with European values.​

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