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Is sovereignty a (new) technology?

This seminar session welcomes Jonathan Roberge, Nicolas Chartier-Edwards, Etienne Grenier and Mélina Poulin. They will explore the challenges of sovereignty in AI research in Canada and the impact of generative AI on Quebec's cultural industries.

Event, Research Seminar

Salle K.011, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin 75007 Paris

Abstract

The sovereign infrastructure of AI as a cryo-controversy - Nicolas Chartier-Edwards, Mélina Poulin, Jonathan Roberge

Drawing on the work of the Shaping 21st Century AI consortium and the Quebec Research Chair in Francophone Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology, this presentation will seek to demonstrate how Canadian issues of AI research sovereignty, at the infrastructural level, become linked to issues of political sovereignty as soon as the state uses this technology as a means of asserting its power. Furthermore, it will demonstrate how the unanimity of agents regarding the use of AI as a means of accessing political sovereignty constitutes a cryo-controversy in the absence of problematisation.

Cultural sovereignty in the turmoil of generative AI: the dual redistribution of expertise and mechanisms within the Quebec ecosystem - Etienne Grenier & Jonathan Roberge

Gibson's maxim that the future is already written in the present seems to apply perfectly to Quebec's cultural circles, which are in shock at the unprecedented and uneven deployment of generative AI. This presentation will focus on the restructuring of this sector in the Canadian province and observe how its main players are being reclassified according to their ability to adapt to datafication and automation processes. Although some cultural industries can count on government assistance, this support seems shaky insofar as it is confined to a technological framework dominated by American industrial groups. So who is proposing what, how, and with what kind of power and resources, both discursive and material? The presentation will draw on a study of two initiatives currently underway in Quebec: the ArtIA project led by a coalition of organisations (Sporobole, SAT and Projet collectif) and the sectoral consultations conducted by Compétence Culture on the future of employment and training in culture.

Biography

Jonathan Roberge is a professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (Quebec, Canada), where he also serves as co-holder of the Quebec Research Chair in Francophone Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology. A specialist in the sociology of science and new technologies, he is one of the leading proponents of what has come to be known as the Montreal School of Critical AI Studies. His most recent publications include Algorithmic Culture (Routledge, 2016) and The Cultural Life of Machine Learning (Palgrave, 2020).

Nicolas Chartier-Edwards  is a doctoral candidate in Politics, Science and Technology at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique at the Centre Urbanisation Culture Société in Quebec City and an affiliated researcher at the IANF Chair and CIRST. His work focuses on the transformations of state sovereignty through the deployment of AI in the federal government of Canada and the provincial government of Quebec. His work has been published in AI & Society, Digital Journal of Social Research and Routeledge.

Etienne Grenier is an artist and researcher working in the field of digital cultures. A doctoral candidate at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique in Montreal, he studies the impacts of datafication on cultural production chains and contributes to the activities of the iANF Chair, the CREAT Chair of the LabCMO and the CIRST. Active within the Projet EVA collective (projet-eva.org), his artistic practice has led him to exhibit his work in leading institutions and major festivals in Europe and the Americas.

Mélina Poulin is a doctoral student in Society, Culture and Digital Technologies at the Centre for Urbanisation, Culture and Society at the National Institute for Scientific Research (Quebec, Canada). She is a research assistant at the Quebec Research Chair in Francophone Artificial Intelligence and Digital Technology (IANF) and a student member affiliated with the Interuniversity Centre for Research on Science and Technology (CIRST). Her research focuses on the challenges of deploying artificial intelligence in higher education, academic research and across the entire scientific production value chain.

Practical information

The session will take place on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM, in person and in French at Sciences Po, Room K.011, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin, Paris 75007.

Registration is mandatory via this link.