Doctorate completed

On July 28, 2021 Nikolaus Pöchhacker successfully completed the oral examination for his doctorate, in which he dealt with „Rule(s) of Recommendation. What the making of a recommender system can tell us about the difficult relation between social order and machine learning.“

Nikolaus Pöchhacker ’s dissertation is about algorithms and AI systems that are becoming increasingly important actors in contemporary societies. Drawing from Science and Technology Studies, media theory, and computer science and based on ethnographic research Nikolaus Pöchhacker describes the development of a machine learning powered recommender system in a public broadcaster. The study shows that the projects for the practical implementation of AI negotiates different social orderings with each other, enabling and limiting algorithmic power at the same time.

Congratulations to the future Dr. phil.!