IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ist/iujecs/v70y2025i0p1-20.html

Opening the Black Box of AI: A Sociological Study of AI as a Network

Author

Listed:
  • Borabay Erbay

    (İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi)

  • Kelly Joyce

    (Drexel University)

Abstract

This study provides a sociological understanding of the production of AI, which is underexplored in the sociology of AI. To achieve this, the study focuses on the AI development process. Utilizing Actor-Network Theory (ANT), this study demonstrates how the development of AI creates a network consisting of both human and nonhuman actors. The sociological literature focuses on how AI is adopted in various social contexts, identifying the social effects of its introduction and use. We investigate AI itself, showing the values and politics that constitute AI sociotechnical systems in the United States. Based on interviews with software engineers residing in Northeastern USA who work on AI and music platforms, the study highlights how humans and nonhuman actors and social forces such as capitalism and imperialism coproduce AI systems. Engineers’ technicality-bound worldview plays a crucial role in their interpretation of AI and the drive for efficiency and profit are foundational values that justify including nonhuman actors such as generative AI platforms and datasets as participants in AI networks. This ultimately results in the production of AI sociotechnical systems that recreate values central to capitalism and imperialism.

Suggested Citation

  • Borabay Erbay & Kelly Joyce, 2025. "Opening the Black Box of AI: A Sociological Study of AI as a Network," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 70(71), pages 1-20, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:70y:2025:i:0:p:1-20
    DOI: 10.26650/JECS2024-1467424
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/A17D6B5A234C4C7B95F1C2261531B76D
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://iupress.istanbul.edu.tr/en/journal/jecs/article/opening-the-black-box-of-ai-a-sociological-study-of-ai-as-a-network
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.26650/JECS2024-1467424?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Daron Acemoglu & David Autor & Jonathon Hazell & Pascual Restrepo, 2022. "Artificial Intelligence and Jobs: Evidence from Online Vacancies," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(S1), pages 293-340.
    2. Matjaž Perc & Mahmut Ozer & Janja Hojnik, 2019. "Correction: Social and juristic challenges of artificial intelligence," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-1, December.
    3. Matjaž Perc & Mahmut Ozer & Janja Hojnik, 2019. "Social and juristic challenges of artificial intelligence," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 5(1), pages 1-7, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mahmut Ozer & Matjaž Perc, 2020. "Dreams and realities of school tracking and vocational education," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 6(1), pages 1-7, December.
    2. Elias Fernández Domingos & Inês Terrucha & Rémi Suchon & Jelena Grujić & Juan Burguillo & Francisco Santos & Tom Lenaerts, 2022. "Delegation to artificial agents fosters prosocial behaviors in the collective risk dilemma," Post-Print hal-04296038, HAL.
    3. Huang, Jiechen & Wang, Juan & Xia, Chengyi, 2020. "Role of vaccine efficacy in the vaccination behavior under myopic update rule on complex networks," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Georgios Lampropoulos, 2025. "Intelligent Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies: An Overview," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-25, February.
    5. Xuli Tang & Xin Li & Feicheng Ma, 2022. "Internationalizing AI: evolution and impact of distance factors," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(1), pages 181-205, January.
    6. Han, Dun & Shao, Qi & Li, Dandan & Sun, Mei, 2020. "How the individuals’ risk aversion affect the epidemic spreading," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 369(C).
    7. Mohamed Alawadhi & Jumah Almazrouie & Mohammed Kamil & Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil, 0. "Review and analysis of the importance of autonomous vehicles liability: a systematic literature review," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 0, pages 1-23.
    8. Juan-Manuel Aguado-García & Sara Alonso-Muñoz & Carmen De-Pablos-Heredero, 2025. "Using Artificial Intelligence for Higher Education: An Overview and Future Research Avenues," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(2), pages 21582440251, May.
    9. Junyoung Park & Do-Hyung Park, 2019. "A Sustainable Project Management Strategy against Multitasking Situations from the Viewpoints of Cognitive Mechanism and Motivational Belief," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-16, December.
    10. Mohamed Alawadhi & Jumah Almazrouie & Mohammed Kamil & Khalil Abdelrazek Khalil, 2020. "Review and analysis of the importance of autonomous vehicles liability: a systematic literature review," International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management, Springer;The Society for Reliability, Engineering Quality and Operations Management (SREQOM),India, and Division of Operation and Maintenance, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, vol. 11(6), pages 1227-1249, December.
    11. Shankar, Shardul & Tewari, Vijayshri, 2025. "Investigating leadership discussion on social media: A NLP and machine learning perspective," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    12. Mahmut Ozer & Matjaz Perc & Hayri Eren Suna, 2024. "Artificial Intelligence Bias and the Amplification of Inequalities in the Labor Market," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 69(69), pages 159-168, June.
    13. Ehsan Nabavi & Chris Browne, 2023. "Leverage zones in Responsible AI: towards a systems thinking conceptualization," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-9, December.
    14. Panagiota (Naya) Kalfeli & Christina Angeli, 2025. "The Intersection of AI, Ethics, and Journalism: Greek Journalists’ and Academics’ Perspectives," Societies, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-22, January.
    15. Emma Dahlin, 2021. "Mind the gap! On the future of AI research," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-4, December.
    16. Syed Shehzad Hassan, 2023. "Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Various Traitsof Life," International Journal of Innovations in Science & Technology, 50sea, vol. 5(2), pages 133-142, June.
    17. Jean-Philippe Aguilar & Jan Korbel & Yuri Luchko, 2019. "Applications of the Fractional Diffusion Equation to Option Pricing and Risk Calculations," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-23, September.
    18. Junjie Lu & Delong Xiao & Haiwei Fu, 2025. "The Reconstruction of China’s Population Mobility Pattern Under Digital Technology Evolution: A Pathway to Urban Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(20), pages 1-17, October.
    19. Andrei Ternikov, 2023. "Skill preferences in job postings," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 43(4), pages 1928-1943.
    20. Gao, Jie & Li, Zhizhuo & Nguyen, Thithuha & Zhang, Wentao, 2025. "Digital transformation and enterprise employment," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ist:iujecs:v:70y:2025:i:0:p:1-20. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Istanbul University Press Operational Team (Ertuğrul YAŞAR) The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Istanbul University Press Operational Team (Ertuğrul YAŞAR) to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifisttr.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.