AI among the humans: Challenges with implementation processes of AI in medical practice

This project studies changes in medical practice in relation to AI.

Theoretically, the project sits at the intersect of (1) science and technology studies (STS), and (2) ‘other-than-human’ debates in anthropology. The key research problem refers to how AI and humans collaborate and coordinate their tasks in medical practice.

Here, the project studies AI-human relations from a social perspective – an approach that has been largely overlooked.The aim of the project is to contribute to knowledge about the practical challenges of AI-human collaboration in the implementation of new technology. The overall research question is: How does an AI enter a medical practice?

Two sub-questions specify the inquiry as a concern with challenges that arise when an AI is introduced to practice, and a concern with how the work of humans and AI is coordinated.

The project addresses how activities and entities (humans, technologies and other objects) are orchestrated in medical practice.

Methodologically, the project applies an ethnographic approach, empirically zooming in on radiology to study three interdisciplinary teams at Stanford University/Stanford Health Care during implementation of new AIs.

The project provides insight into how AI and humans collaborate in medical practice, and the conditions under which they can do so.

In doing so, the project provides new knowledge on the social dynamics of AI, and AI-human relations, in medical practice.