Gabriel Grill

My research interests revolve around the socio-technical study of (emerging) algorithmic infrastructures like generative AI and their consequences to societies. I am currently examining how digital sovereignty can be better operationlized and made more legible in the EU to enable autonomy that promotes social and public values. My interdisciplinary approach is informed by sensibilities from science and technology studies and technical expertise in computer science. I use both qualitative and quantiative methods in my research and draw on literature from infrastructure and media studies, human-computer interaction, and social studies of algorithms, AI, & data.

I have published academic articles examining sociotechnical aspects of algorithmic systems on topics such as: unrest prediction, algorithmic profiling in public welfare, and emotion recognition. I also examined how globalized testing infrastructures for generative AI can promote unfounded hype, conceptions of algorithmic bias matter in public discourse, and online harassment on social media can be curbed.

I am currently a postdoctoral researcher part of the Human Rights and Technology group at the Interdisciplinary Transformation University Austria (IT:U) and a visiting researcher part of the AI Futures Lab at TU Delft. I obtained a PhD in Information and Science and Technology Studies from the University of Michigan where I was advised by Christian Sandvig and Silvia Lindtner. I also obtained a master’s degree in computer science from Vienna University of Technology. I have also previously been affiliated with the Center for Ethics, Society, and Computing (ESC) at the University of Michigan, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo and Vienna University of Technology.

My work was featured in US & European media outlets like Wired, governmental policy documents such as of the European Parliament, and by NGOs such as Human Rights Watch. I published at academic venues such as ACM SIGCHI (Human-Computer Interaction), ACM FAccT (Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency), ACM CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing), and Frontiers in Big Data. I presented my work at conferences such as the Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S), Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR), and the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE).