Hybrid Materialities, Power, and Expertise in the Era of General Purpose Technologies

This article proposes three distinct perspectives on and approaches to the study of hybridisation across society, industries, and academia enabled by General Purpose Technologies like AI and blockchain. The term hybridisation is frequently invoked to describe and prescribe human-machine interaction and technological interoperability. Critically assessing processes of hybridisation through the perspectives of (1) materiality, (2) power and (3) expertise, we argue that the language of hybridity smoothens out frictions between human judgment, on the one hand, and automated decision-making, on the other, and that processes of hybridisation veil technology-induced epistemic and economic inequalities. In each of these perspectives, we draw on fieldwork conducted at different sites where general-purpose technologies are in play.