**Abstract:**

In this submission, we explore the concept of "machine culture", describing culture that is mediated or generated by machines. In particular, we review existing and foreseeable instances where intelligent machines are transforming evolutionary processes of culture at the levels of variation, transmission, and selection. Empirical evidence highlights that machine culture is already occurring: models using reinforcement learning are enhancing variation when they inspire humans to develop novel behaviors, as has been demonstrated for the ancient game of Go (Shin et al. 2023); Large Language Models are facilitating the transmission of cultural knowledge and redefining the value of human creative skills (Epstein et al. 2023); and recommender systems are rewiring pathways of cultural transmission by selecting what and from whom humans learn. Compared to humans, machine intelligence is structurally different, trained differently, and subject to different computational constraints (Gershman et al. 2015, Griffiths 2020). We investigate how these idiosyncrasies of machines might reshape cultural variation, transmission, and selection. Ultimately, our contribution presents a research agenda and a conceptual framework that can be leveraged for deeper investigations of machine culture.

**Speaker's social media:**

@LevinBrinkmann

LIVE - Machine culture

Please note that for those who submitted a pre-recorded video, we have posted it along with a live recording.

Artificial Intelligence

technical paper

Welcome to the Cultural Evolution Society (CES) Conference 2024, which was a hybrid conference held at Durham University (UK). The conference was hosted in Durham by the Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC) with administrative assistance from the CES Transformation Fund team.

**For more information about the CES Conference, please visit the [CES Website Home Page](https://ces2024.webspace.durham.ac.uk/).**

#### Durham Cultural Evolution Research Centre (DCERC) 
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
**Interdisciplinary study of cultural change and diversity**

We are a highly interdisciplinary group of researchers using evolutionary models to study cultural change and diversity.  We apply cultural evolutionary methods to a wide variety of topics including cognition, innovation, social learning, technology, art, music, narrative, religion, sociality, language and communication. We have a growing interest in applying cultural evolutionary theory to current societal challenges such as understanding the spread of prosocial health behaviours and health conspiracies.<br>
**[Discover More](https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/institutes-and-centres/cultural-evolution/)**

#### CES 2024 [Code of Conduct](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BDJcgi95_jDy7VOEu72wfSR83D5JtHSc/view?usp=sharing)

If you feel at any time you have been the victim of harassment or inappropriate behavior that contradicts our code of conduct, you may use the following form to report the incident. 

**[CES 2024 Code of Conduct Report Form](https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=i9hQcmhLKUW-RNWaLYpvlGWUgzc9C8FMnit5-H2U3oZURUpYRjI5TFM3RUhaRzVDT1o5UEs3M1oxUy4u)**

<br><br>



You need to log in with the email address you registered with. Access credentials have been sent to your email. 

Please be sure to check your spam and other email folders if you do not see an email confirmation right away.

Please log in to explore this event.

It looks like you are not registered for this event. 

To access the site please register [**here**](https://ces2024.webspace.durham.ac.uk/registration-information/). 

Registration Is Required

Cultural Evolution Society Conference 2024

The field of cultural evolution is growing in size and scope; its theories, methods and applications - both academic and applied - are getting ever more robust. Do join us in what promises to be an exciting exchange of ideas and a celebration of our field.

Jean-François Bonnefon

1

2

OTHER AFFILIATIONS

Presentations

LIVE - Machine culture

Stay up to date with the latest Underline news!

PRESENTATIONS

CONFERENCES

COMPANY

RESOURCES