ELSI team addresses trust, value and gender aspects of AI and infrastructures at the 4S 2023 conference

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BBMRI-ERIC’s ELSI team presented the scientific outcomes of several EU projects on trust, value and gender aspects of infrastructures and organised a panel session on AI at the 4S 2023 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii hosted by the Society for Social Studies of Science (4S) from November 8 to 11.

The panel session, called “Trusting AI: Infrastructures of sharing, but with whom, by whom, for whom?“, was organised by ELSI team members Mónica Cano Abadía, Kaya Aküyz, Melanie Goisauf, and Michaela Th. Mayrhofer. In total, the panel comprised nine presentations from interdisciplinary scholars from Canada, Columbia, France, Germany, Italy, the USA, and Austria and was split into two consecutive sessions. Panellists critically addressed imaginaries of trust and data sharing whilst calling for more engagement-focused, bottom-up approaches to (techno)science-society relationships.

Discussing research results among peers 

ELSI team members also delivered two presentations that built on research results across multiple projects in which BBMRI-ERIC is partaking.

Mónica Cano Abadía presented “Trustworthiness in Medical Artificial Intelligence: In the Interstices between Techno-solutionism and Techno-scepticism”, which examined the ethical and societal implications with a feminist theory angle during a session that aimed at navigating complexities when harnessing technology’s potential to improve health services.

Presenting “Trustworthiness in Medical Artificial Intelligence: In the Interstices between Techno-solutionism and Techno-skepticism” at #4SHonolulu23 @4sweb. Thanks to @BelislePipon @VarditRavitsky and @YaelBensoussan for organizing an amazing panel! #BBMRI_ELSI #STS pic.twitter.com/n8xTnD7ybx

— Mónica Cano Abadía (@mcanoabadia) November 11, 2023

Kaya Akyüz, Melanie Goisauf, and Michaela Th. Mayrhofer presented “Re/valuing data/infrastructures: How are cohorts as collections transformed into a moral economy of data use?” The talk focused on  re/valuing practices that take place as transformations at the data level where existing data gets renewed with reuse, harmonisation, and standardisation and at the infrastructure level where new value is generated by adapting to change.

Both presentations built on findings across multiple projects such as CINECA, EOSC-Life, EuCanImage, EUCAN-Connect, and INTERVENE, which have aspects of infrastructure building and tool development for health research in common.

Michaela Th. Mayrhofer emphasised why conferences such as 4S 2023 are pivotal for presenting outcomes from ongoing research projects to relevant audiences.

“Sharing insights into technoscientific practice and knowledge with our social science peers allows us to productively reflect on research findings, translate the feedback into the project work instantaneously but also use it for BBMRI’s own infrastructure building and service creation.”

The 4S Conference 

Boasting an extensive programme, the event featured over 400 sessions centring around the overarching theme of “Sea, Sky, and Land: Engaging in Solidarity in Endangered Ecologies” and attracted about 3000 attendees across the globe.

Mahalo for a beautiful Opening Keynote @kamanabeamer grounding the #4S2023 themes Sea, Sky, Land, Endangered Ecologies and Solidarities & the 5 Hawai’ian virtues composing together the deep meaning of Aloha, and in his scholarship, kinship, activism and ‘āina entwined 🌊🍀@4sWeb pic.twitter.com/u2Nmf2b7Wz

— Karen Waltorp (@karenWaltorp) November 9, 2023

At the forefront of the social studies of science, technology, and medicine (commonly known as STS), the annual 4S conference is among the most renowned. This year’s theme artfully presented the sea, sky, and land as metaphors, inviting presenters and guests to contemplate how to care and connect in endangered times. The conference provided a platform for STS insights into technoscientific practice and knowledge, the nature of expertise, and the exploration of whose knowledge claims hold significance and why.

Publications

Publications resulting from the 4S 2023 conference by the ELSI team are in preparation and expectantly forthcoming in Q1/2024. To access recently published work from the BBMRI-ERIC ELSI Services & Research Department, see our current research and publications page on the website.