What Generative AI means for Qualitative Research
Christina Silver, PhD, FAcSS, SFHEA
CAQDAS Networking Project, University of Surrey
Qualitative Data Analysis Services Ltd
DWP Methods Advisory Group Meeting, 16th July 2024
Abstract
Building on the Symposium on AI in Qualitative Analysis work conducted with the SRA, this talk considers where we are now at in terms of the role and use of AI in the qualitative research process.
Christina discusses some of the key methodological and ethical considerations that face the qualitative community of practice in this new AI-infiltrated world.
For anyone working in and considering the methodological implications for qualitative research and analysis, there are issues to critically evaluate before using Generative-AI which Christina urges every qualitative and mixed methods researcher to consider
Relevant reading
Paulus TM & Marone V (2024)
"In Minutes Instead of Weeks": Discursive Constructions of Generative AI and Qualitative Data Analysis. Qualitative Inquiry. Published Online May 8th 2024
Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, and Shmargaret Shmitchell. (2021)
On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?. In Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT '21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 610–623.
Kristi Jackson, Queri, Trena Paulus, University of Georgia &
Nicholas H. Woolf, Woolf Consulting (2018)
The Walking Dead Genealogy: Unsubstantiated Criticisms of Qualitative Data Analysis Software (QDAS) and the Failure to Put Them to Rest
Relevant podcast and youtube videos
Mystery AI Hype Theatre 3000
Episode 28: LLMs Are Not Human Subjects. March 4, 2024
CAQDAS Chat with Christina
Episode 10: Christina Chats with Janet Salmons. May 31, 2024
From 30 mins we begin talking about research integrity and the ethics of using generative AI
Symposium on AI in Qualitative Analysis
Organised by the Social Research Association in partnership with the CAQDAS Networking Project
Part 1 AI in Qualitative Analysis: Developments and Methodological implications. November 25, 2023. Full recording available on YouTube
Part 2 AI in Qualitative Analysis: Research Applications, Opportunities and Challenges, December 2, 2023. Full recording available on YouTube
Blogposts
Artifical Intelligence and Machine Learning in Qualitative Analysis
Steve Wright
Important Issues for Automated Transcription,
David Woods, Lead Developer of Transana.
Automated transcription and some risks of machine interpretation
Daniel Turner, Director of Quirkos Software
AI in Qualitative Research, blog series
Christina Silver, Director of CAQDAS Networking Project, University of Surrey
& Director of Qualitative Data Analysis Services (QDAS)
