Public defence: Mari Serine Kannelønning

This thesis explores the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Norwegian healthcare services. It does so by focusing on the role of expectations and technological promises related to a future with AI in healthcare and how such visions are collectively pursued in the present. 

AI is widely expected to play an essential role in providing financially viable public healthcare services in the future. The expectations typically include promises of technologies that can automate repetitive tasks and support healthcare professionals in making decisions, thereby improving their work efficiency and enhancing treatment quality and patient safety. However, the current state of the introduction of AI in healthcare services worldwide is characterised by a so-called AI chasm between the expectations and the promise of AI technologies and their actual deployment in real-world clinical settings. To navigate this complex landscape, governments, health authorities, AI environments and other stakeholders perceive the need for a collective effort among those with relevant knowledge and expertise. 

This thesis uses the AI chasm as an entry point to explore three Norwegian initiatives that mobilise heterogeneous sets of actors in attempts to enable AI in the Norwegian public healthcare services: a national inquiry process led by the Norwegian Directorate of Health, an AI procurement process at a hospital trust and a nationwide network of professionals. These initiatives are studied through a qualitative case study approach that includes data from digital meeting observations, interviews and document analysis. Each study represents one of the three articles in this article-based thesis and explores different aspects of expectations, promises and collective work with the future of AI in healthcare as the focal point. Altogether, the case studies enabled an investigation of the overall research question of this thesis: 

What are the significance and implications of ‘mobilisation’ in the early phases of introducing ambiguous, complex and advanced technologies like AI in healthcare?

The thesis analyses the findings from the case studies by drawing on concepts and perspectives from Science and Technology Studies (STS) dealing with innovation processes and the shaping of technological developments. With a primary focus on the aspect of actor mobilisation and Michel Callon’s (1986b) article ‘Some Elements of a Sociology of Translation: Domestication of the Scallops and the Fishermen of St Brieuc Bay’, the thesis develops a theoretical apparatus with three modes of actor mobilisation at its core: Mode 1: Steered outcome; Mode 2: Negotiated outcome; and Mode 3: Fragmented and distributed outcome.

As a whole, this thesis aims to contribute to a better understanding of the role of future-oriented representations (e.g., expectations and technological promises) and the mobilisation of heterogeneous actors in the processes of introducing advanced and complex classes of technology, such as AI, into society.