Open Workshop: Emergent Cognition - AI for Research
The aim of the Open Workshop Series in Business and Management Studies is to promote top-quality academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences. This is a unique opportunity for sharing knowledge and networking with local and international community members.
Speaker: Prof. Soumodip Sarkar, University of Évora, Portugal
Generative AI like ChatGPT is revolutionizing different sectors, including impacting profoundly how management research is conducted. We use the extended cognition hypothesis, (ECH) as a lens through which we analyze GPTs role in research.
The key idea being cognitive processes extend beyond the brain to include external tools, GPT4. This EC perspective provoked traditional views on where cognition occurs, if indeed within the “boundaries of skin and skull”, but rather proposing that our minds can incorporate external devices or systems, which then form a part of cognitive processes. Critics like Adams and Aizawa, arguing for contingent intracranialism, suggest that extended cognition lacks a clear demarcation of cognitive processes, insisting on a specific cognitive criterion not met by extended cognition arguments. This criterion likely refers to a unique feature or process intrinsic to the brain's cognitive functions, not replicable or extendable outside of it. We argue that generative AI's technology acts as an extension of human cognitive capabilities, given two additional capabilities beyond analytical- learning and generative. Taken together this pushes the boundaries of cognition beyond biological limits and supporting the extended cognition theory. We then use the ECH to show how management scholarship, particularly the paper writing process is part of this cognitive process.
Professor Sarkar is a Full Professor at the University of Évora, Portugal, and a researcher at CEFAGE-UE. He is also a Fellow of the Asia Center at Harvard University since 2018, and was the former Vice-Rector of the University of Évora (2018-2022). He is also a management “practioner” given his role as Executive President of the Alentejo Science & Technology Park (PACT) since 2018, pivotal in creating an innovation-driven environment and promoting investment in the region.
Prof. Sarkar's research interests encompass innovation, more especially in relation to AI, entrepreneurship, and sustainability. His scholarly work, has been published in many high-impact journals, including California Management Review; R & D Management; Strategic Management Journal; Journal of Operations Management; IEEE-TEM; Government Information Quarterly, Regional Studies, Scientometrics, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Small Business Management, European Management Journal, Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Technology Forecasting and Social Change, Journal of Business Research, Service Business, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Knowledge Economy, European Journal of Innovation Management, Service Industries Journal, Trends in Food Science and Technology, Regional Science and Urban Economics, Energy Journal. Prof. Sarkar was included in the University of Stanford’s “World’s Top 2% Scientists list” in 2023. His authorship of four books on entrepreneurship and innovation, particularly "EntreSutra" published by Bloomsbury in 2019, marks him as a thought leader in these domains.
Discussion moderated by Dr. Arnis Sauka.
Attendance is free of charge.
Please sign up for the seminar, by writing to arnis.sauka@sseriga.edu by April 18, 2024.
The aim of the SSE Riga Open Workshop Series is to:
- Foster cooperation between business and management researchers, practitioners and policymakers, as well as
- Promote academic and applied research in various fields of the social sciences, focusing on but not limited to entrepreneurship, marketing, management, public administration, and strategy.
Organised by Professor Arnis Sauka, the Centre for Sustainable Business at SSE Riga