Are They Doing Artificial Intelligence? (Re)Constructing the Primary Activity in Data Science

Abstract

Data science (DS) is concerned with building so-called artificial intelligence, i.e., computer systems that automate tasks based on historical data. This article is the first attempt to examine DS using Adele E. Clarke’s framework of social worlds. The main goal of this paper is to show the (re)construction of primary activity based on the example of the social world of DS in Poland. Methodological reflection on this (re)construction is an underdeveloped element in the study of social worlds; therefore, this paper strives to make this process explicit. The empirical background is a three-year ethnographic study, following Clarke’s situational analysis approach. The methodological results demonstrate the indispensability of collaborative ethnography in (re)constructing primary activity and the importance of finding palpable elements as those being crucial to understanding primary activity. The substantive results focus on the idea that data scientists do not refer to their activity as doing artificial intelligence.