Miracles, Molecules, and Machine Learning: The Cow Urine Discourse with Indian YouTube Influencers

The talk explores the linguistic features of culturally embedded pseudoscience using large language models (LLMs). It employs a corpus of viral YouTube videos by influencers either promoting or debunking “gomutra” (cow urine) as having medicinal value for a range of clinical conditions. It discusses that promoters and critics deploy hybrid rhetorical strategies, which combine scientific and biomedical vocabulary with traditional and religious metaphor. The talk examines figures of speech, pronoun shifts, intensifiers, and sarcasm to highlight the tension between technology and modernity online in conversations that exist against the backdrop of civilizational entanglements. The findings bring to fore methodological challenges with using LLMs for qualitative studies while underscoring the need to treat language itself as a site of political struggle.

About the Speaker: 

Joyojeet Pal is a Professor at the University of Michigan’s School of Information, where his research focuses on techno-populism, specifically the intersection of technology, social media, and democracy in India. He previously served as a Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, where he founded the Social Media and Society group to study global digital cultures. He produced and researched 'For the Love of a Man', a feature documentary on fan culture in Tamil Nadu, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival.​