About SAIS

SAIS is an interdisciplinary research group at the Human-IST Institute led by Professor Anna Jobin. Bringing together social science and Science and Technology Studies (STS) perspectives, we examine digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet, with a particular focus on tech narratives and AI governance.

We understand algorithms and digital infrastructures as sociotechnical and sociomaterial institutions rather than neutral tools. SAIS examines how digital realities are woven and negotiated in everyday life and social institutions: How technologies organise information and attention, how they are invested with expectations about AI-driven futures, and how they become sites of performance and contestation. Empirically, we study how digital systems are imagined and implemented, how different actors make sense of them, and how they are governed and contested. Current and past projects include work on AI soft law and ethics guidelines, (mis)information and its governance, hype studies, and the social lives of platforms and their data.

SAIS is committed to research, teaching and public engagement. The group is closely involved in the Master programme "Digital Society" at the University of Fribourg and hosts both student assistants and early-career researchers. SAIS members participate in public conversations and policy debates through outreach articles, media engagement, advisory roles and committee work, informing, contextualising and critically engaging discussions about digital technologies in societies.