Researchers Explore Innovative Methods for Researching ADM in Health and Medicine

It is often difficult for social researchers to elicit the public’s understanding and practice of emerging digital technologies—even experts disagree on how exactly to define such terms as ‘artificial intelligence’ or ‘automated decision-making (ADM)’.

In an effort to address this, ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) Chief Investigator and leader of the Health Focus Area Professor Deborah Lupton convened two half-day online workshops in August to explore innovative methods for researching ADM and AI in the domains of health and medicine to help research participants respond to questions and think creatively about these technologies.

The workshops featured presentations from ADM+S Centre researchers as well as guest speakers from the University of Wollongong’s Australian Centre for Health Engagement, Evidence and Values, and RMIT University’s Digital Ethnography Research Centre, Care-full Design Lab and Social and Global Studies Centre.

Workshop 1, held 10 August, began with presentations from researchers in the ADM+S Centre’s Health Focus Area at UNSW Sydney. Prof Jackie Leach Scully spoke on using dialogue groups to explore moral understandings, Prof Deborah Lupton and Dr Ash Watson discussed creative writing prompts and online workshops, and then Dr Watson and Dr Vaughan Wozniak-O’Connor talked about their cultural probes method. The second session of this workshop featured speakers from the University of Wollongong. Dr Yves Saint James Aquino presented on translating normative theory into empirical research practices, followed by Prof Annette Braunack-Mayer on engaging publics using citizens juries, and then Prof Stacy Carter discussed a range of speculative methods for eliciting understandings of AI in health.