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Satellite images, social media and barcode scanners in shops offer a wealth of data that has so far been little used in the social sciences. New AI-supported methods are helping with the evaluation, but they require a great deal of IT expertise and legal and ethical consideration. This interdisciplinary expertise is now to be pooled in a competence centre called ‘Societal Observatory Using Novel Data Sources (SOUNDS)’. The state government is providing 29 million euros from the Transformation Fund to support this initiative, with the aim of generating scientific insights and concrete economic impetus for transforming the Saarland economy.
The following text has been machine translated from the German and has undergone no postediting:
In the social sciences, many studies have traditionally been based on surveys of the population. These surveys not only probe political and social attitudes, but also analyse consumer behaviour with regard to consumer goods or preferences for sustainable products, for example. ‘If such surveys are to be of high quality, reliable and designed for the long term, the data must be collected at great expense and in a time-consuming manner,’ explains Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science at Saarland University. ‘Not least because of this, these surveys are often only snapshots; they do not allow real-time analysis and do not help to identify emerging, complex phenomena or tipping points in the system at an early stage,’ explains Ingmar Weber, Humboldt Professor of Artificial Intelligence at Saarland University.
New, often freely available data sources such as smartphone location tracking in mobile networks, reviews on platforms such as Google Maps, or continuously updated satellite images offer completely different possibilities here. "Computer-assisted analysis methods are needed to evaluate this unconventional and often unstructured data. This is where computer science comes into play, which has already developed sophisticated algorithms for the natural sciences. These still need to be adapted for social science questions and should include image analysis in addition to language processing,‘ explains Ingmar Weber. ’Since the social sciences have already become active in this area under the heading “computational social sciences”, we believe that the time has come for interdisciplinary research and teaching collaborations to achieve groundbreaking successes," adds Daniela Braun. For this reason, Ingmar Weber and Daniela Braun joined forces two years ago to found the Interdisciplinary Institute for Societal Computing (I2SC). There, researchers from computer science, the humanities and the social sciences use computer-based methods to investigate social phenomena.
Just as astronomers are discovering previously unknown stars and planets with ever better telescopes, the Saarbrücken research team now wants to create so-called digital socioscopes, a kind of digital telescope that can be directed at society to detect changes. ‘The data sources must be carefully checked to ensure that data protection regulations are not violated and that no distorted images are created because data is linked incorrectly,’ explains Ingmar Weber. "We have investigated population movements in Ukraine and Venezuela, for example. In Ukraine, we were able to observe on satellite images where cars suddenly stopped parking. In Venezuela, we were able to track migration via Facebook profiles," says Ingmar Weber, citing examples.
This also creates new opportunities for the Saarland economy: linking computer science and social research gives rise to analytical tools that can support both the private and public sectors in strategic decision-making, identify market potential and forecast location developments. SOUNDS not only wants to provide data-based advice to politicians and administrators, but also lay the groundwork for spin-offs and innovative business models that create jobs in Saarland and strengthen the competitiveness of the economy: "A furniture company in Saarland might be interested in how full its competitors' car parks are. And shop owners in Saarbrücken-Malstatt might wonder whether customers are travelling from the Rhine-Main area especially for their special offers and whether advertising there would be worthwhile,‘ says the researcher.
’Social media has become an important source of data for the social sciences for studying society and politics," explains Daniela Braun. For the new SOUNDS research centre, they are also a central object of research: ‘During the US election campaign, at the latest, it became clear to many that social networks pose a major threat to Western democracies. Their algorithms amplify extreme political statements and spread unverified fake news,’ warns Humboldt Professor Ingmar Weber. Interdisciplinary research teams will therefore investigate whether decentralised structures of new platforms such as Bluesky are less susceptible to this. They also want to explore the question of where personal data is better protected – in the centrally controlled structure of a monopoly-like company or in federal networks with decentralised, independent instances.
Jakob von Weizsäcker, Minister of Finance and Science of the Saarland, hopes that the new research centre will provide important impetus for the transformation of the Saarland: "As a think tank, or rather a “think-and-do tank”, the SOUNDS project will not only provide well-founded, data-based analyses, but also develop concrete solutions that can be used directly in practice. With funding from the Transformation Fund, we are combining excellent research with economic benefits: companies will receive new tools for market and location analyses, start-ups will be able to develop new business models using innovative methods, and politicians and administrators will gain a precise basis for decision-making. In this way, SOUNDS will strengthen the Saarland's competitiveness and drive forward the transformation towards a sustainable economy."
University President Ludger Santen also sees great opportunities in the SOUNDS research centre: "Almost all disciplines that deal with social phenomena at the macro level – from political science to macroeconomics – will benefit from this broad-based interdisciplinary project. The unconventional data sources and new methods for evaluating this data using machine learning techniques will enrich these fields and greatly accelerate the gain in knowledge. This will certainly also give rise to business ideas that will help start-ups and existing companies in Saarland to succeed."
The SOUNDS research centre will bring together the Department of Computer Science with empirically and quantitatively oriented departments in the social, political and economic sciences at Saarland University. In addition, there will be a strategic partnership with the ‘AI, Computing & Society’ (AICS) project, which is supported by the Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau. With funding from the Transformation Fund, professorships in future-relevant topics will be advertised, which will be secured in the medium term by reallocating vacant chairs. This structural strengthening of the Saarland university landscape is a central goal of the fund in order to open up new areas of excellent research and the resulting business fields. In addition, a graduate college and a certificate programme for societal computing will be established to train students from various disciplines in AI methods, data analysis and entrepreneurial action.
Numerous players from politics, business and society have already expressed their interest in collaborating on the newly approved Trafo project SOUNDS, including the Saarland Chamber of Industry and Commerce, the State Agency for Political Education, the State Media Authority, the Union Foundation and the Adolf Bender Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
Further information: www.i2sc.net
Ingmar Weber, Humboldt Professor of Artificial Intelligence
Tel. +49 (0) 681 302-70788
Email: iweber@cs.uni-saarland.de
Daniela Braun, Professor of Political Science with a focus on
European Integration and International Relations
Tel. +49 (0) 681 302-2352
Email: d.braun@uni-saarland.de
Professor Dr. Ingmar Weber, Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun
Quelle: Thorsten Mohr
Copyright: Universität des Saarlandes/Thorsten Mohr
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Professor Dr. Ingmar Weber, Prof. Dr. Daniela Braun
Quelle: Thorsten Mohr
Copyright: Universität des Saarlandes/Thorsten Mohr
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