The Paper Factory

This talk is organised in cooperation with the Academy of Sociology.

Abstract:

Quantitative sociology faces several challenges: an encroaching competitor in applied microeconomics; a low level of reproducibility and credibility; and risk aversion in pursuing transformative research ideas. In this talk, I consider how LLM coding agents can lower the technical barriers to research and help us confront these challenges. In an application, I discuss the steps of a multi-agent paper factory. This approach shifts research implementation from a craftsmanship problem to a managerial one: balancing micromanagement against emergent knowledge; excess division of labor that loses coherence against relying too much on a single agent with bounded attention; goal-setting that agents can game. In conclusion I consider the novel problems that automated social science raises.