1. Can you provide an overview of the AI research at AiPact?
The Erasmus Initiative Societal Impact of AI (AiPact) focuses on studying AI in four key domains of our society. Via these four thematic programme lines, AiPact aims to connect scholars at the EUR from all the different schools, as well as with the Erasmus MC and TU Delft, who do research and give education on the societal impact of AI.
AI in Arts and Culture
The leading question in this program line is how the use of AI in art can create new opportunities for individuals, organisations, and systems to unlock their full potential with AI. We consider AI in arts and culture as an object of study as well as a living lab to foster creativity, engagement, and sympathy – all necessary to set the expectations for AI to benefit people and society.
With this programme line, AiPact dovetails with the research and teaching agenda of the Cultuurcampus op Zuid. The line also links to the Convergence initiative Resilient Delta and Centre for Bold Cities.
AI in Communication and Change
The use of AI in communication, ‘cognitive communication,’ promises unprecedented opportunities for social, institutional, and behavioural change. The leading question in this programme line is how the benefits of digital technology can be used optimally for a healthy, fulfilling, and sustainable lifestyle and living environment while keeping potential risks at a minimum. In a human-centred approach, focusing on strategic and popular communication, we consider AI an object of study and a tool for innovative research and education on cognitive-communication and change.
Pioneering for the Erasmus Initiative, prof. Moniek Buijzen launched this programme line in 2020, resulting in the AI Movez team and the ECDA expert practice AI, digital communication and behavioural change. A Vici and a Vidi grant strengthen the programme line. The team is also collaborating with local societal partners New Momentum and Talentzskool. The programme line links with all three Convergence programmes.
AI in Healthcare Policy and Management
AI has a huge impact on our lives and how we experience and care for our health. Self-tracking enables us to keep up with our health achievements and to signal possible health threats. AI also affects our healthcare system as it impacts traditional ways of organising and providing care, bringing in new actors (e.g. data scientists) and reconfiguring traditional notions of good care. In our research, we study how AI both governs and is governed by the health and social care system.
We explore the practices of AI in healthcare governance, observing and acting with key players in the field. We study research practices of making and applying AI, regulation, service delivery, clinical decision-making, professional development, and the experiences and practices of being a patient or client. We examine how AI affects notions of good care and patienthood and how it impacts policymaking and regulation – but also the other way around; how ‘historical’ and vested institutionalised arrangements (e.g. laws, ethical arrangements) influence the use and hence possibilities of AI. Using social science theories and methods and working in close collaboration with practitioners, regulators, professionals and citizens, we engage in the interactions between AI and society, looking for the social impact of AI in health care.
The line links to the convergence initiatives Health and Technology and AIDA and aims for a structural link with Erasmus MC and the planned ICAI lab.
AI in Work and Labor
AI-based solutions are gaining importance in organisational life, dramatically changing work practices and relationships. On the macro-level, this means, for example, data-driven decision making and services, while on the micro level, automation could enhance workplace safety. This thematic line takes a human-centred approach, focusing on the opportunities for close collaboration between humans and machines while mitigating the challenges.
Our research and teaching will investigate (i) new ways of organising and (ii) new work practices that can enhance the safety and well-being of all employees. As such, this programme line aims to contribute to an inclusive future of work.
2. How does AiPact support and collaborate with other departments or research centres involved in AI research?
AiPact actively supports and collaborates with other departments involved in AI research. Our interdisciplinary team of young talent, the ‘AiPack’ (consisting of five PhDs and four postdoc researchers), focus on AI in four societal domains and actively work together with senior academics from the various Erasmus Schools (RSM, ESSB, ESHCC, ESE and ESHPM) and the Convergence Partners (TU Delft, Erasmus MC). In addition, members of the AiPact Steering Committee are actively involved in various Erasmus and Convergence initiatives, including Health & Technology, AIDA, Centre for Bold Cities as well as national initiatives and dialogues around AI.
In addition, to support other departments and research centres involved in AI research, we launched the AiPact Spore Fund. With this fund, we invite Erasmus University scholars to apply for sponsored research and networking activities aligning with the AiPact objectives and programme lines. This is to initiate, consolidate and connect an interdisciplinary network of scholars, enabling innovative research and educational projects on the societal implications of AI.
Moreover, AiPact is also part of the Erasmus Centre for Data Analytics (ECDA). As an integral part of ECDA, the AiPact benefits from its facilities and infrastructure (e.g., Erasmus Data Collaboratory). In return, it enriches its stakeholder network in the city and region with research and education on the societal implications of AI. This helps build an interdisciplinary network of scholars and stakeholders (quadruple helix: academia, government, industry and society) that, through a convergence of disciplines, co-creates human-centred AI.
3. Can you discuss any particularly innovative or groundbreaking projects currently being undertaken at AiPact?
The Algorithmic Society (ALGOSOC)
As part of the Gravitation Programme, the Dutch government awarded 21.3 million euros to the consortium ‘The Algorithmic Society’ (ALGOSOC). This research project is a collaboration between five universities, led by the University of Amsterdam, investigating the implications of the increasing use of automated decision-making and Artificial Intelligence (AI). Together, research, education and societal impact will be realised on this topic over the span of the next ten years.
The EUR team, which is making a substantial contribution to the ALGOSOC project, is led by Professor of Communication and Behavioral Change and Academic Lead of AiPact Moniek Buijzen of the Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences, together with co-applicants dr. Esther Rozendaal (ESSB) and Prof. Ting Li (Rotterdam School of Management).
The team will focus on how within the development of (semi-) automated processes, such as AI, public values and human rights can be safeguarded in the areas of Health and Media.
A Dutch consortium including University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, University of Utrecht, Tilburg University and Delft University of Technology is carrying out ALGOSOC.
For more information see: https://www.eur.nl/en/news/essb-participates-gravitation-programme-algorithmic-society
AICON
The AICON Art Project is the AiPact initiative’s interdisciplinary project, connecting citizens, artists and researchers in exploring the social-beneficial potential and challenges of AI. This collaborative project focuses on empowering communities, allowing them to discover what defines their environment and how they engage with the world.
It revolves around co-creation and considers cross-disciplinary concepts that do not fit within traditional databases. Ultimately the hope is that this will contribute to democratising AI, making it understandable and accessible to communities while promoting an alternative way to collaborate and urging to re-examine the values which define a society and its citizens.
This process will be realised via an AI-based artistic intervention in public space, based on input collected during participation with citizens as well as available data based on previous research, surveys, social media etc. Depending on the input, this aiconic visual art intervention is scalable and can grow accordingly. The project will involve a sustainable (potentially endless) interaction cycle between artists and citizen-scholars in an upward spiral towards augmented art, science, and society.
AICON is an open invitation to participate in this journey with ideas, network, experience, funding, knowledge, and/or inspiration to cocreate human-centred innovation.
For more information, see: https://www.eur.nl/en/research/research-initiatives/erasmus-initiatives/societal-impact-ai/aicon and https://www.erasmusx.io/projects/aicon/
Flagship Project - Consultation Room 2030
The AiPact Steering Committee members are actively involved in Health & Technology Convergence Flagship Project “The Consultation Room 2030”. This is a joint project of TU Delft, Erasmus Medical Center and Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management to explore how the future of healthcare will change in the coming years.
Healthcare has traditionally centered around the bricks and mortar of a hospital, a physical space where doctors and patients interact. But that has changed: healthcare is transforming into a system no longer defined by physical space. The practice of medicine has changed in a relatively short time from a system where the exchange of information went mainly through personal, physical interactions with patients and colleagues to a system that is dominated by information technology.
The doctor-patient interaction most commonly occurs in the Consultation Room (Spreekkamer in Dutch). Whatever the complaint, wherever the location, be it the GP’s office, the hospital, an out-patient clinic, or an emergency room, the interaction is within the domain of the so-called Consultation Room. Not much has changed in the consulting room in the last decades. The only ‘innovation’, namely the arrival of a computer in the room, sometimes has the unfavourable by-effect that the communication between the patient and the specialist competes with the computer screen and keyboard. However, since the introduction of the computer, many more new technologies have been launched. For example, speech can already be used as input for obtaining information from the web resulting in an answer in spoken text, as is currently the reality in many households with chatbots such as Google Home and Amazon Echo.
However, not only new ways to consult the web but also many other new technologies are available and are currently under development, like the use of virtual reality, speech-to-speech translation, augmented reality, AI decision support, and digital personal assistants. These developments offer new opportunities to support all the processes in the consulting room in which communication between doctor and patient is only one element), and maybe even trigger to extend the current situation's processes, like offering extra services to the patient outside the consulting room.
For more information see: http://www.spreekkamer2030.nl/about-us/
4. What is the uniqueness of how AI Pact /EUR research approaches and addresses societal AI challenges??
The AiPact sets itself apart thanks to its innovative and impact-driven interdisciplinary research and education in AI, whereby people and society are placed centre stage. We not only aim to advance research on AI, but also actively want to involve and stimulate discussions with key stakeholders both within and outside the EUR on the societal impact of AI.
Together with key stakeholders, we wish to set the expectations for the implementation of AI benefiting society. Through setting the expectations, we seek to engage the public with the rapidly evolving integration of AI in society.
For more information contact: Yanick Kuper at kuper@rsm.nl