Professional knowledge and Artificial Intelligence

Recent technological developments have once again brought to the fore questions about the relation between professional knowledge and artificial intelligence (AI). This change has created many new issues.

On the one hand, every practitioner of a profession is accustomed to relating to the established knowledge in his field. On the other hand, AI can conflict with how knowledge is normally constructed and negotiated within a profession.

In the proposed project, the consequences of artificial intelligence for professional knowledge will be investigated on the basis of a case study of the work of helmsmen and captains on board ships.

By studying a profession that until recently was mainly based on traded experience and apprenticeships, but which has recently undergone major technological changes, the project highlights how intelligent systems change the challenges, boundaries and content of professional knowledge.

Through ethnographic fieldwork and video recordings of ship officers’ and captains´ work on the bridge, after the introduction of an AI system, the following questions are answered: (a) How is professional knowledge affected by the introduction of artificial intelligence in a workplace? (b) What challenges and tensions arise in the encounter between experience-based professional knowledge and artificial intelligence?

The project is expected to contribute to an increased understanding of how technological development changes the conditions for professional work and expertise and sheds light on the role of professional knowledge in the increasingly technological society and working life of the future.