More Than Prompt Engineers: Philosophical Perspectives on Generative AI in Social Work Scholarship

Background: Since the public release of ChatGPT in November 2022, social work scholarship on artificial intelligence has expanded rapidly. Most contributions focus on applications in education and practice (Creswell Bðez et al., 2023; Garkisch & Goldkind, 2024; Singer et al., 2023). Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) technologies are increasingly ubiquitous in social work practice, teaching, and research. Beyond serving as tools for conducting research, GenAI systems are also emerging as sites of scholarly investigation and experiments in practice innovation.

Philosophy of science perspectives are natural partners for studying GenAI's implications in social work. However, distinct philosophical traditions remain largely siloed in social work's discussions of technology. A need exists for pluralist dialogue. Empiricist approaches document adoption patterns and measure outcomes but often lack critical examination of power dynamics embedded in technological systems. Critical perspectives interrogate how technologies reproduce structural inequities but may overlook practical implementation considerations. Bringing these diverse philosophical perspectives together can deepen our understanding of how GenAI shapes knowledge production, practice possibilities, and outcomes in social work, and challenge us to think differently about our established research pathways.

Aims: 1) Examine how contrasting philosophical positions shape GenAI research and practice in social work; 2) Identify productive tensions and complementarities between these perspectives; and 3) Develop more nuanced, ethically grounded approaches to GenAI that bridge epistemological divides.

Structure: Four presenters will share case examples drawing upon diverse philosophical traditions and research contexts. Rather than presuming a normative stance, presenters will begin from the question: "What's at stake in working with GenAI?" to foreground their unique perspectives. Presenter 1 will present empirical data from a 2025 survey on doctoral-level social work students' integration of AI into their practice and research, highlighting patterns of adoption from an empiricist perspective. Presenter 2 will approach GenAI through feminist data science and digital humanities, examining his participation in a critical AI literacy-focused inquiry group to critically assess technological hype and knowledge production, exploring transdisciplinary perspectives on AI and their implications for social work research. Presenter 3 will address questions of equity, access, and inclusion through feminist, anti-oppressive, and decolonial frameworks, examining who benefits from technological expansion and who is excluded. Presenter 4 will address GenAI as a research tool using a post-positivist lens, examining mixed-methods and the NASW Code of Ethics as interpretive lenses for harnessing technology for social good.

After presentations, participants will discuss: 1) how different philosophical positions shape what counts as knowledge in GenAI research; 2) tensions between empirical, interpretive, and critical approaches to AI; 3) ethical implications of these philosophical differences; and 4) strategies for developing research approaches that integrate multiple epistemological traditions. Our goal is to equip social work scholars with tools to think critically about the role of generative AI by exploring how different philosophical traditions shape our questions, methods, and interpretations. By sharing these perspectives, we aim to help scholars bridge epistemological divides and highlight opportunities for integrative and pluralistic thinking on GenAI in social work research, teaching, and practice.