Do We Blame it on the Machine? Task Outcome and Agency Attribution in Human-Technology Collaboration

With the growing functionality and capability of technology in human-technology interaction, humans are no longer the only autonomous entity. Automated machines increasingly play the role of agentic teammates, and through this process, human agency and machine agency are constructed and negotiated. Previous research on “Computers are Social Actors (CASA)” and self-serving bias suggest that humans might attribute more technology agency and less human agency when the interaction outcome is undesirable, and vice versa. We conducted an experiment to test this proposition by manipulating task outcome of a game co-played by a user and a smartphone app, and found partially contradictory results. Further, user characteristics, sociability in particular, moderated the effect of task outcome on agency attribution, and affected user experience and behavioral intention. Such findings suggest a complex mechanism of agency attribution in human-technology collaboration, which has important implications for emerging socio-ethical and socio-technical concerns surrounding intelligent technology

Delegating Agency in the Public Sector: A Case Study on Current Human-Technology Practices and Visions for AI

Human-technology collaboration is currently receiving a surge of attention in Information Systems (IS) due to attempts to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) in private and public organizations. In Scandinavia, governments are introducing AI-infused services to support decision-making and enhance efficiency in case processing within healthcare, education, and welfare. However, there is a need to shed more light on the conditions that precede AI implementation and the path that leads organizations to envision AI as a solution to a problem. We ask: How do humans and technology cooperate in the public sector? How is AI visioned to be part of this in the future? We report from an ongoing qualitative case study of work practices to assess sick leave cases at a Scandinavian welfare agency in which AI gradually emerged as a means to achieve more efficient resource distribution at the agency. Inspired by the concept of delegation drawn from Actor-Network Theory, we trace the distribution of work across technical and human agents in the sick leave department and illustrate how the agency is starting to envision a way to delegate tasks to AI-based tools in the future

Automation Anxieties: Perceptions About Technological Automation and the Future of Pharmacy Work

This study uses a sample of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians (N = 240) who differ in skill, education, and income to replicate and extend past findings about socioeconomic disparities in the perceptions of automation. Specifically, this study applies the skills-biased technical change hypothesis, an economic theory that low-skill jobs are the most likely to be affected by increased automation (Acemoglu & Restrepo, 2019), to the mental models of pharmacy workers. We formalize the hypothesis that anxiety about automation leads to perceptions that jobs will change in the future and automation will increase. We also posit anxiety about overpayment related to these outcomes. Results largely support the skillsbiased hypothesis as a mental model shared by pharmacy workers regardless of position, with few effects for overpayment anxiety

The impact of human-technology cooperation and distributed cognition in forensic science: biasing effects of AFIS contextual information on human experts*

Experts play a critical role in forensic decision making, even when cognition is offloaded and distributed between human and machine. In this paper, we investigated the impact of using Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS) on human decision makers. We provided 3680 AFIS lists (a total of 55,200 comparisons) to 23 latent fingerprint examiners as part of their normal casework. We manipulated the position of the matching print in the AFIS list. The data showed that latent fingerprint examiners were affected by the position of the matching print in terms of false exclusions and false inconclusives. Furthermore, the data showed that false identification errors were more likely at the top of the list and that such errors occurred even when the correct match was present further down the list. These effects need to be studied and considered carefully, so as to optimize human decision making when using technologies such as AFIS

Artificial Intelligence Technology on Teaching-Learning: Exploring Bangladeshi Teachers’ Perceptions

The increasing attention to artificial intelligence technologies in daily life and the need to consider it as a priority topic for students in the twenty-first century clearly leads to artificial intelligence (AI) integration in higher education. Therefore, university teachers must be properly prepared to use AI in their teaching for successful integration. In this study, the researcher aimed to survey to investigate Bangladeshi university teachers' attitudes toward AI as a teaching tool. The survey results showed that teachers have minimal understanding of Artificial Intelligence and its assistance in the classroom. However, they considered it as an educational possibility. The findings indicated that teachers require assistance to be effective and competent in their teaching practices; the findings suggested that AI has the potential to contribute as an assistant

Theorizing the Concept of Agency in Human-Algorithmic Ensembles with a Socio-Technical Lens

The growing relevance of algorithmic systems, including artificial intelligence, for processes of value creation raise theoretical and practical interest in the conceptualization of actorhood and the balancing of human and technological agencies within socio-technical ensembles. Prominent theories of the IS discipline still reflect a human-centric conceptualization of agency, which we deem challenged by advances in machine learning technology. We therefore motivate a revised theorizing of the concept of agency with a socio-technical lens. For that, we apply an inductive top-down theorizing approach. In this short paper, we present the first inductive step by describing tensions, oppositions and contradictions in the discourse on agency in IS literature of the last 30 years in the AIS Senior Scholars’ Basket of journals. The preliminary findings uncover a conceptual and ontological incoherence surrounding the concept of agency in IS scholarship, and a gap between reviewed publications and the agency claims of algorithmic systems

Art Education In a Network Ontology: Seeing Non-Humans

A proliferation of objects populate classroom spaces, the newest include a long list of innovative technologies, but their presence is characterized by their instrumentality. This paper presents a shift in this thinking to one where objects are seen as heterogeneous contributors to learning and teaching. Student practices within networked computing are changing how they form connections with peers, perceive boundaries, and negotiate diverse modalities as creators. The overwhelming visual nature of these various technologies provides opportunities for a visual culture pedagogy of art education to build critical foundations in investigations of visuality and may provide insights to participation through these multimedia platforms. In trying to understand these opportunities, this paper focuses on developing an analysis of the network ontology of art education through the methodology of actor-network theory (ANT). This analysis repositions visual technologies, particularly Adobe Photoshop, beyond their instrumentality to a reconceptualization as collaborators within human-technology interactions to more fully comprehend their affordances, gaps, and hegemonies. It is an investigation of a network ontology focusing on bringing symmetry to human and non-human actors in social formations, following the effects of translation, and working through the assemblage of social ontologies to better understand their contributions to human-technology collaborations

Ethical Marketing AI?A Structured Literature Review of the Ethical Challenges Posed by Artificial Intelligence in the Domains of Marketing and Consumer Behavior

With the increasing use of AI in marketing, ethical repercussions are beginning to emerge. From privacy issues, through discrimination of marginalized groups, to emergent systemic social distortions, AI is changing the marketing ethical landscape. In this paper we conduct a structured literature review of the emerging ethical issues posed by AI in the domains of marketing and consumer behavior. We identify three clusters of ethical issues (algorithm, society and existential) and map these to the marketing domains of systems, brands, and consumers. We conclude that the field of ethical marketing AI is still very much in its infancy, but such is the rate of development ethical marketing AI is likely to become important field for academics and practitioners alike

SHEDDING LIGHT ON RESILIENCE IN NURSING: THE INFLUENCE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY USE IN CLINICAL CARE ON NURSES’ SENSE OF COHERENCE

The nursing discipline is increasingly confronted with far-reaching challenges that are a prominent subject in public discourse. Factors such as growing numbers of chronically ill patients and an ongoing decrease in medical personnel impose unprecedented strain on clinical care providers and nurses, which requires high levels of resilience on an individual and organizational level. The introduction of digital information and communication technology (ICT) in the workplace is intended to counteract these challenges and foster resilient everyday care. However, studies that investigate the interplay of digitalization and individual resilience are scarce. Hence, we propose a mixed-method approach to explore how ICT use in a clinical work setting influences nurses’ sense of coherence. This construct has been used as a theoretical foundation to investigate resilience in nursing. Further, the exploration of individual coping strategies in the light of ICT-related disturbances in the workplace and associated job-related outcomes complement the research agenda

Problematizing the Human-Technology Relationship through Techno-Spiritual Myths Presented in The Machine, Transcendence and Her

This article explores three common techno-spiritual myths presented in three recent science fiction films, highlighting how the perceived spiritual nature of technology sets-out an inherently problematic relationship between humanity and technology. In The Machine, Transcendence and Her, human-created computers offer salvation from human limitations. Yet these creations eventually overpower their creators and threaten humanity as a whole. Each film is underwritten by a techno-spiritual myths including: “technology as divine transcendence” (where technology is shown to endow humans with divine qualities, “technological mysticism” (framing technology practice as a form of religion/spirituality) and “techgnosis” (where technology itself is presented as a God). Each myth highlights how the human relationship to technology is often framed in spiritual terms, not only in cinema, but in popular culture in general. I argue these myths inform the storylines of these films, and spotlight common concerns about the outcome of human engagement with new technologies. By identifying these myths and discussing how they inform these films, a techno-spirituality grounded in distinctive posthuman narratives about the future of humanity is revealed