Can Humans and Machines Form Societies?

Recent advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, and computational infrastructures have transformed the ways humans interact, communicate, work, govern, and imagine collective futures. As machines increasingly participate in social processes once considered exclusively human, fundamental sociological questions re-emerge with renewed urgency: What constitutes a society? Who or what can be a member of it? Can machines become social actors? And, ultimately, can humans and machines together create a society?

This conference invites scholars to explore these questions through the lens of sociological theory. Rather than focusing solely on technological developments, we seek contributions that engage with the conceptual, epistemological, normative, and ontological challenges posed by emerging human–machine relations. The increasing presence of algorithmic systems in everyday life, organizational decision-making, public administration, knowledge production, and interpersonal interaction compels sociologists to reconsider longstanding assumptions about agency, communication, coordination, power, social integration, and collective life.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Human–machine interaction as a form of social relation
• Artificial intelligence in social agency
• Artificial communication and interaction between humans and machines
• Collective action involving autonomous systems
• Human–machine assemblages and hybrid forms of sociality
• The sociability of artificial agents
• LLMs as discourse producers
• Narrative production in light of intelligent machines

The session will be organized in order too maximize debate.