AI as a Factor of the Scientific Evaluation

Béla Mester, ELTE Research Centre for the Humanities, Institute of Philosophy AI as a Factor of the Scientific Evaluation The large discourse about the role of AI is focussed mainly on its impact on employment and other social circumstances, but its emergence in the field of science itself is almost avoided. This paper offers an overview of the possible effects of using AI in the scientific evaluation of research groups and individual scholars within the network of research institutions and in the application systems of significant scientific foundations. (In our region, they are dominantly national ones, often in a monopolistic position.) According to the author’s hypothesis, using AI in these processes has an important antecedent, the endeavour to avoid subjective approaches via pseudo-mathematical models. (Everything has a number, but the calculation does not meet the mathematical standards.) AI represents a new level in this well-known pseudo-mathematisation of the evaluation processes, it can be called a bad conservatism. Every AI system in the field of science depends on the database(s) of researchers and research data. Using AI in evaluation systems means that AI can interpret well-known research topics and trendy applications, but the innovations can be easily in AI’s blind spot. At the end of the planned lecture, the author will offer actual Hungarian examples, focusing on the history of philosophy, especially the research in archives with digitalised and not digitalised text corpora. Keywords: application systems, archives, conservatism, history of philosophy, innovation, scientometrics, text corpora.