Research Team on AI and Algorithmic Culture

The Research Team on AI and Algorithmic Culture, operating within the Media Research Centre, conducts interdisciplinary research on the social, cultural, cognitive, and educational consequences of artificial intelligence development in the context of algorithmic society. The team’s primary focus is the analysis of processes through which artificial intelligence systems and algorithms become an integral part of the cognitive, communicative, and cultural infrastructure of contemporary societies.

The team is based on the assumption that the development of generative artificial intelligence does not merely represent a technological shift, but rather leads to a profound transformation of social practices, including knowledge production, information selection, attention management, and decision-making processes. In this view, AI is understood not only as a technological tool, but also as a cultural environment, a non-human social actor, and a mediator of cognitive and communicative relations.

A central research area of the team is the concept of algorithmic culture, according to which algorithms and AI systems co-organise everyday practices and structure processes of visibility, communication, and knowledge distribution. Within this framework, the team analyses phenomena such as the platformisation of social life, datafication, automation of cognitive processes, and the increasing delegation of cognitive functions to AI systems.

An important pillar of the team’s research is the perspective of extended cognition and cognitive offloading, focusing on changes in the human–technology relationship, including the transfer of memory, analytical, creative, and decision-making functions to AI systems. The team examines the implications of these processes for cognitive autonomy, critical thinking, reflexivity, and users’ epistemic competencies.

A second key research area concerns the relational dimension of human–AI interaction. The team investigates emotional, social, and identity-related aspects of AI use, including processes of technological anthropomorphisation, levels of trust in AI systems, emotional attachment to AI, and the redefinition of responsibility within human–algorithm relations.

The team also develops research on AI competencies, understood in a humanistic way as a set of social, cognitive, critical, and ethical skills that go beyond purely technical abilities. In this perspective, particular importance is assigned to non-digital competencies as the foundation of autonomous and reflective functioning in algorithmic environments.

Another important area of research concerns the educational and cultural consequences of AI development, including transformations in learning processes, the role of media education, and changing models of participation in digital culture. The team examines how AI systems influence educational practices and what competencies are necessary for responsible and critical engagement with technology.

The team’s research activity is inherently interdisciplinary, integrating media studies, sociology, psychology, philosophy, and communication studies. Both quantitative methods (panel models, regression analyses, comparative studies) and qualitative approaches (discourse analysis, digital ethnography, user practice analysis) are employed.

The aim of the team is to develop an integrative, humanistic model for analysing artificial intelligence in contemporary culture, enabling a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of algorithmic society and the consequences of AI development for individual autonomy, social practices, and knowledge structures.