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James Evans
@profjamesevans
Max Palevsky Professor of Sociology, Computational & Data Science @UChicago, Santa Fe Institute, & Google tweeting about science, technology, and AI in society.
Chicago, IL
sociology.uchicago.edu/directory/jame…
Joined February 2019
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  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Jun 8, 2022
    Loved working with my amazing flat team of Fengli Xu and Lingfei Wu on our new PNAS paper "Flat Teams Drive Scientific Innovation" to show that relative to tall, hierarchical teams, flat, egalitarian ones produce more novelty and new directions for science pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Oct 6, 2021
    The amazing Johan Chu and I published a piece out this week at PNAS (doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2…) showing how the growing size and success of sci/tech fields ironically impedes the rise of new ideas within them. A growing deluge of papers leads to a crystallization of the canon.
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Dec 21, 2021
    Thrilled to be hosting the International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2) July 19-22, 2022 at UChicago with Sendhil Mullainathan, Rochelle Terman, Luis Bettencourt and a mind-blowing line-up of speakers: Details @ ic2s2.org; spread the word!
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Jun 9, 2024
    I'm hiring (several) postdocs @KnowLab this year and over the next 5 years at the University of Chicago in AI, Data and Computer Science, Computational Social Science, Tech Policy, Science of Science and Innovation, and more! Check out ads (and please forward to your favorite
    41K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Oct 20, 2023
    I'm hiring a Senior Research Associate (PI eligible) at UChicago's Knowledge Lab to build community, programs, and catalyzing research at the intersection of knowledge (e.g., STS, innovation, [mis]information), AI, and society. Please apply and forward! apply.interfolio.com/135089
    16K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Sep 27, 2019
    New piece out online today with Austin Kozlowski and Matt Taddy on the "Geometry of Culture" about how machine learning models built from historical text can identify cultural dimensions, trace cultural evolution, and enable cultural discovery: bit.ly/2nGxU2e (1/2)
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Mar 18, 2025
    New in @ScienceMagazine: "Large AI models are cultural and social technologies" Working with brilliant colleagues Henry Farrell, Alison Gopnik, and Cosma Shalizi, we challenge the prevailing narrative about AI models as autonomous agents.
    science.org
    Large AI models are cultural and social technologies
    Implications draw on the history of transformative information systems from the past
    20K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Nov 7, 2023
    Finally, our book about 'Algorithmic Cultures' came out on the varied logics underlying AI in society and why need to understand, conserve, and cultivate algorithmic diversity. With Adrian Johns and many other rockstar historian and science studies friends...
    9.2K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Jul 4, 2019
    New paper with @arzhetsky @valdanchev demonstrates that centralized, networked scientific communities inadvertently produce much less replicable knowledge. elifesciences.org/articles/43094
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Jul 27, 2023
    New paper in Nature Human Behaviour with the inimitable @JamshidSourati on how to build human-aware Artificial Intelligence (AI) that complements rather than substitutes for human capacity in creative, competitive domains like science and technology (S&T). rdcu.be/dhMDX
    10K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Oct 4, 2022
    At Knowledge Lab I'm looking for a postdoc or predoc to start now & develop/apply computational methods to data on science and tech innovation for the broad challenge of tracking the direction of global advance and what governments should fund! Pls share! bit.ly/3CzoI3C
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Feb 6, 2024
    Come join us for an amazing line-up at the International Conference on the Science of Science and Innovation (ICSSI) at the National Academies in Washington D.C. July 1-3, 2024! icssi.org Submissions by March 24!
    7K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Apr 14, 2023
    Excited about my recent paper led by the amazing Feng (Bill) Shi in Nature Communications on How Science and Technology are Driven by Surprise, as driven by Expeditions from Intellectual & Technical Outsiders: nature.com/articles/s4146…
    7.4K
  • user avatar
    James Evans
    @profjamesevans
    Nov 26, 2019
    Here is our take what is computational sociology...and computational social science). Our answer suggests that computation should not only shape how we answer social questions, but how expand our imagination to ask them (w UCLA's Jacob Foster): journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.117…