[Air-L] 4S 2025 | Echoes of Human Care and AI Repair in Times of Broken Machines

[Srravya C]

Hi everyone,

We hope this email finds you well. We are pleased to invite you to *submit
an abstract* to our open panel “*Echoes of Human Care and AI Repair in
Times of Broken Machines*” (panel 86) at the 50th Annual Meeting of the
Society for Social Studies of Science (4S): Reverberations
<https://www.4sonline.org/about_the_conference_seattle.php> (September 3 –
7, 2025 Seattle WA).

Please see below for the panel abstract.

Abstracts (max 250 words) can be submitted to the conference platform
through the submission system
<https://www.4sonline.org/accepted_open_panels_seattle.php> (panel 86).
Please note that the deadline for submissions is *January 31, 2025*.

If you have any questions, please feel free to get in touch with us. We
look forward to receiving your proposals.

Best Regards,
Srravya (and the AIES team)
----

Panel 86
*Echoes of Human Care and AI Repair in Times of Broken Machines*

We explore AI as a ‘broken machine,’ examining flaws and failures as sites
for sociotechnical change which are entangled with socio-political
histories and shape future potentialities. Engaging with relational and
nonlinear conceptual and activist lenses exemplified by care and repair,
techno-refusal and abolition, this panel aims to challenge mainstream
characterizations of AI and chart the complexities of its intertwined
flaws, errors and uncertainties. We welcome case studies, theoretical and
methodological analyses, and artistic expressions.

This panel explores the socio-political significance of AI malfunctioning
through the lens of care and repair, situating these within broader
scholarship from STS and Critical Data Studies, aiming to bring together a
collective of researchers, artists and activists interested in AI
brokenness as both method and site. Just as reverberations transmit and
transform energy across space and time, the discussion will focus on the
echoes of disruption and the potential for constructive reactivation within
and without AI systems. Drawing inspiration from Sarah Sharma's ‘Manifesto
for the Broken Machine,’ we aim to interrogate how brokenness in AI can
serve as a site for radical reflection and innovation. The unintentional
‘great IT outage’ of August 2024 and the intentional governmental internet
shutdowns in India serve as points of departure to examine brokenness as a
critical concept. By likening broken machines to figures such as Sara
Ahmed's killjoys and Donna Haraway's cyborgs, we propose examining the
alternative onto-epistemologies that challenge mainstream AI narratives.
These perspectives often defy neat categorisation under traditional
expertise, demanding a more inclusive approach that embraces marginal
voices and diverse modes of knowledge production. This panel invites
contributions through case studies, theoretical and methodological
explorations, or artistic expressions, that address the following
questions: How can brokenness in AI be reimagined as a force for
socio-political change? What are the possibilities for repair and care in
an age where technology rapidly co-evolves with capitalist exploitation?
How do marginalised onto-epistemologies inform our understanding of AI? Is
there room for resistance or abolition in regions of high AI entrenchment
and enchantment?

AI Ethics & Society is a research network based in Scotland and Northern
England, exploring the critical intersections of AI through invited talks,
reading groups, screenings, and symposia. This is our first collective
submission to 4S.