AI AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE: HYBRID EXPERTISE AND THE LIMITS OF COLLINS'S THEORY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5840/eps202663340Keywords:
science studies, expertise, artificial intelligence, large language models, hybrid expertiseSupporting Agencies:
The author acknowledges the support of this research by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation under agreement No. 075-03-2026-305 (January 16, 2026), associated with project “Applied Research on the Implementation of Artificial Intelligence Technologies in Higher Education” (project code: FSMG-2025-0086).Abstract
This article proposes a rethinking of the role of artificial intelligence in contemporary science through an analysis of Harry Collins's concept of expertise. The point of departure is the observed tension between normative accounts of expertise - grounded in ideas of socialisation, tacit knowledge and membership in a form of life - and the empirical practices in which AI systems increasingly perform epistemically significant functions. The article contends that traditional deficit-oriented critiques of AI, which focus on the absence of human properties, are losing their explanatory power in the context of the widespread adoption of large language models. The article further argues that with the integration of AI, expertise ceases to be primarily an individual property and increasingly emerges as a feature of hybrid socio-technical systems, whose epistemic capacities arise from the interaction between human and non-human agents. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates the need to reconfigure the anthropocentric conceptual apparatus of science studies to enhance its explanatory adequacy. It proposes a shift in research focus toward the empirical analysis of AI's actual use in scientific practice and the reconstruction of the emergent normative orders within these systems.
References
Aaronson, S. “The Problem of Human Specialness in the Age of AI”, Shtetl Optimized, 2024. [https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=7784, accessed on: 10.04.2026]
Anthropic. “Claude’s Character”, 2024. [https://www.anthropic. com/news/claude-character, accessed on: 10.04.2026]
Callon, M., Latour, B. “Don’t Throw the Baby Out with the Bath School! A Reply to Collins and Yearley”, in Pickering, A. (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 343–368.
Cappelen, H., Dever, J. “AI with Alien Content and Alien Metasemantics”, arXiv:2405.19808, 2024.
Collins, H.M. Artificial Experts: Social Knowledge and Intelligent Machines. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990.
Collins, H.M. “Interactional Expertise and Embodiment”, in: Sandberg, J., Rouleau, L., Langley, A., Tsoukas, H. (eds.), Skillful Performance: Enacting Expertise, Competence, and Capabilities in Organizations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, pp. 125–146.
Collins, H.M. Artifictional Intelligence: Against Humanity’s Surrender to Computers. Cambridge: Polity Press, 2018. 232 p.
Collins, H. “Why Artificial Intelligence Needs Sociology of Knowledge: Parts I and II”, AI & Society, 2025, vol. 40, pp. 1249–1263.
Collins, H.M. “The Bath School and the Strong Programme”, Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 2026, vol. 63, no. 3, pp. 22–32.
Collins, H.M., Evans, R. “The Third Wave of Science Studies: Studies of Expertise and Experience”, Social Studies of Science, 2002, vol. 32, no. 2, pp. 235–296.
Collins, H.M., Yearley, S. “Epistemological Chicken”, in: Pickering, A. (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992, pp. 301–326.
Croce, M. “For a Service Conception of Epistemic Authority: A Collective Approach”, Social Epistemology, 2019, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 172–182. Cross et al., 2024 – Cross, S., Bell, I., Nicholas, J., Valentine, L., Mangelsdorf, S., Baker, S., Titov, N., Alvarez-Jimenez, M. “Use of AI in Mental Health Care: Community and Mental Health Professionals Survey”, JMIR Mental Health, 2024, vol. 11.
Dreyfus, H.L. What Computers Can’t Do: A Critique of Artificial Reason. New York: Harper & Row, 1972
Ferrario, A., Facchini, A., Termine, A. “Experts or Authorities? The Strange Case of the Presumed Epistemic Superiority of Artificial Intelligence Systems”, Minds and Machines, 2024, vol. 34, article 30.
Fricker, E. “On the Metaphysical and Epistemic Contrasts between Human and AI Testimony”, Inquiry, 2025, pp. 1–26.
Latour, B. “What Is Iconoclash? Or Is There a World beyond the Image Wars?” in|: Latour, B., Weibel, P. (eds.), Iconoclash: Beyond the Image Wars in Science, Religion and Art. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002, pp. 14–37.
Latour, B. “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern”, Critical Inquiry, 2004, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 225–248.
Marchal, N., Chan, S., Franklin, M., Revel, M., Keeling, G., Fischli, R., Chandra, B., Gabriel, I. “Architecting Trust in Artificial Epistemic Agents,” arXiv:2603.02960, 2026.
Merchant, A., Cubuk, E.D. “Millions of New Materials Discovered with Deep Learning”, Google DeepMind Blog, 2023. [https://deepmind. google/blog/millions-of-new-materials-discovered-with-deep-learning, accessed on: 10.04.2026]
Mishra, A., Majumder, A., Kommineni, D. et al. “Role of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Personalized Medicine: A Systematic Review”, Cureus, 2025, vol. 17, no. 4, e82310.
O’Connor, M.T. “AIs as Fellow Participants in the Language Game”, AI & Society, 2025, pp. 1–11.
Seabrooke, T., Schneiders, E., Dowthwaite, L., Krook, J., Leesakul, N., Clos, J., Maior, H.A., Fischer, J.E. “A Survey of Lay People’s Willingness to Generate Legal Advice Using Large Language Models (LLMs)”, Proceedings of the Second International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS ’24), Austin, TX, September 16–18, 2024. New York: ACM, 2024.
Searle, J.R. “Minds, Brains, and Programs”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 1980, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 417–457.
Shumer, M. Something Big Is Happening, 2026. [https:// shumer.dev/something-big-is-happening, accessed on 24.04.2026]
Tukhvatulina, L.A. “Ekspertiza posle pandemii” [Expertise after the Pandemic], Epistemology & Philosophy of Science, 2025, vol. 62, no. 3, pp. 229–236. (In Russian)
Voevodenko, A.V. “Strategii opredeleniya neyavnogo znaniya: M. Polani, G. Kollinz, S. Terner” [Strategies for Defining Tacit Knowledge: M. Polanyi, H. Collins, S. Turner], The Digital Scholar: Philosopher’s Lab, 2025, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 94–111. (In Russian)
