Social studies of science
Nov 25, 2023
This article explores how innovation logics infiltrate problem and value definitions in maintenance and repair, and how innovation itself depends on considerable, often invisible care work beyond the seemingly smooth entrepreneurial narratives. We bu...
Social studies of science
Sep 13, 2023
How can we examine so-called 'artificial intelligence' ('AI') without turning our backs on the STS tradition that questions both notions of artificiality and intelligence? This special issue attempts a step to the side: Instead of considering 'AI' as...
Social studies of science
Aug 31, 2023
The article explores technology-human relations in a time of artificial intelligence (AI) and in the context of long-standing problems in social theory about agency, nonhumans, and autonomy. Most theorizations of AI are grounded in dualistic thinking...
Social studies of science
Aug 31, 2023
This article expands on recent studies of machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that crucially depend on benchmark datasets, often called 'ground truths.' These ground-truth datasets gather input-data and output-targets, thereby...
Social studies of science
Jul 10, 2023
This paper investigates the role of the materiality of computation in two domains: blockchain technologies and artificial intelligence (AI). Although historically designed as parallel computing accelerators for image rendering and videogames, graphic...
Social studies of science
May 8, 2023
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools are being developed to assist with increasingly complex diagnostic tasks in medicine. This produces epistemic disruption in diagnostic processes, even in the absence of AI itself, through the datafication and digita...
Social studies of science
Oct 22, 2022
Paro, a baby seal robot, is arguably the best-known care robot worldwide. Its clinical effects on people with special needs have been studied for more than twenty years by multidisciplinary teams. However, there are very few studies of Paro 'in the w...
Social studies of science
Jun 23, 2022
The current reanimation of artificial intelligence includes a resurgence of investment in automating military intelligence on the part of the US Department of Defense. A series of programs set forth a technopolitical imaginary of fully integrated, co...
Social studies of science
Apr 7, 2022
Care robots promise to assist older people in an ageing society. This article investigates the socio-material conditions of care with robots by focusing on the usually invisible practices of human-machine interfacing. I define human-machine interfaci...
Social studies of science
Feb 10, 2020
In this study, we explore the constitution of user representations of robots in design practice. Using the results of ethnographic research in two robot laboratories, we show how user representations emerge in and are entangled with design activities...