Last week, I attended the 3rd MethodsNET Summer School in Social Science Research Methods (3SRM), one of Europe’s largest PhD-level methods schools to date. Having participated in the 2nd edition, I eagerly anticipated this year’s installment—and it certainly exceeded my expectations!
This year, I took part in the “AI for Political Analysis” course taught by Prof. Dr. Ethan Busby. Over five intensive days, we engaged in vibrant discussions about the applications of AI in political analysis (and beyond), culminating in a presentation on our final day about integrating AI into our research endeavors.
It was during that presentation that the idea for the Chrono-sampling paper was born. I decided then to shift my focus toward exploring how AI can advance Public Opinion Research. In fact, on a rainy afternoon while waiting for the bus, I found myself in an inspiring conversation with my good friend Levi (Levente Littvay) about using AI to create and study counterfactual scenarios — a concept that later evolved into the Generative Counterfactual Framework. We even mused: what if we could go back in time and survey people? The rest, as they say, is (unironically) history.
Overall, the course was amazing, and I can’t recommend next year’s summer school enough—even if you don’t sign up for the same track. It’s an opportunity to gain fresh insights and engage with like-minded researchers that you really shouldn’t miss!