Can you use generative AI to write ethnography and does AI have a soul?

What is it about?

This is an experimental article where an anthropologist experiments with AI. Five key questions are reflected upon throughout the article: (1) Can an AI platform write thick description? (2) Is it a substitute for anthropological enquiry? (3) Might an AI platform constitute a fieldsite in itself? (4) What is the implication of the above for anthropologists (5) Can we contend that such technology might have a soul?

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Photo by Microsoft Copilot on Unsplash

Photo by Microsoft Copilot on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This paper engages theoretically and practically with the possibilities and some of he dangers of AI use for anthropologists. This may help to inform how AI use is taught to budding anthropologist in the classroom and how it is used within the wider discipline of social sciences. More than this, the article questions whether through the use of generative AI tools we are beginning to ensoul these technologies and what impact this may have as the 21st century progresses.