Mathieu Jacomy
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Mathieu Jacomy is Doctor of Techno-Anthropology and assistant professor at the Aalborg University. He has been a research engineer at the Sciences Po médialab in Paris. He co-created Gephi, a popular network visualization tool. He develops computational instruments for the social science and humanities. His current research focuses on visual network analysis and irreductionist visualization, AI-assisted visualization, digital controversy mapping, anthropology of generative AI, and computational social science.
Mathieu Jacomy joins the Paris IAS in February 2026 for one month as part of the "Distinguished Fellowship program" developed in collaboration with PostGenAI@Paris, led by Sorbonne University. Based in the heart of Paris, this interdisciplinary and cross-sector consortium aims to promote ethical, inclusive and sovereign AI that is fully rooted in the major challenges of our time.
The Paris IAS welcomes international researchers to support them in their research on artificial intelligence, its consequences for our societies and the prospects it offers for the future.
Research topics
Visual network analysis; AI-assisted visualization; digital controversy mapping; anthropology of generative AI.
Visualization for AI Augmented Sociology
This project aims to develop AI-augmented qualitative research methods that can analyze large-scale social phenomena in real-time while maintaining interpretative depth. The focus is on "observatorial" controversy mapping - continuously tracking how sociotechnical controversies evolve using Large Language Models (LLMs) and advanced visualization techniques.
The collaboration with the Institut d'Études Avancées Paris and the PostGenAI cluster will create tools for computational social sciences, particularly "atlas systems" that visualize large unstructured dataset with embedding models and LLMs. Key challenges include adapting LLMs for rigorous social research, managing AI limitations like hallucinations, and developing specialized prompting skills for sociological analysis.
Expected outputs include: open-source visualization software for large embedded datasets with temporal dimensions; a benchmark system with synthetic datasets for controversy mapping; evaluation procedures for interpretive research needs; and theoretical principles for big qualitative analysis. The benchmark will test whether visual clusters reflect discursive styles versus arguments, and how continuous spectrums of opinion are represented visually.
This addresses the bottleneck where traditional qualitative methods produce insights too late to impact fast-changing sociotechnical landscapes, enabling democratic engagement with emerging controversies when public input is most needed.
Key publications
Jacomy, Mathieu, and Erik Borra. “Measuring LLM Self-Consistency: Unknown Unknowns in Knowing Machines.” Sociologica 18 (2): 2, 2024.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.1971-8853/19488.
Jacomy, Mathieu, Tommaso Venturini, Sebastien Heymann, and Mathieu Bastian. “ForceAtlas2, a Continuous Graph Layout Algorithm for Handy Network Visualization Designed for the Gephi Software.” PLoS ONE 9 (6): 1–18, 2014.
Doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0098679.
Bastian, Mathieu, Sebastien Heymann, and Mathieu Jacomy. “Gephi : An Open Source Software for Exploring and Manipulating Networks.” Third International ICWSM Conference, 361–62, 2009.
Doi: http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/09/paper/viewFile/154/1009/.
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