Artificial intelligence in the practice of work

Q2 Business, Management and Accounting

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Pub Date : 2023-01-01 DOI:10.13169/workorgalaboglob.17.1.0034

M. Heinlein, N. Huchler

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Abstract

The article proposes an analytical perspective on artificial intelligence (AI) that can be fruitful in the sociology of work. The practical logic of new forms of AI (connectionist AI) is described as an interplay of social and technical processes of opening and closing possibilities of knowledge and action. In order to develop this argument, it is first shown in which sense AI can be understood as a contingency-generating technology in socio-technical contexts. The architecture based on neural networks is elaborated as a decisive feature of connectionist AI that not only opens up technical possibilities but can also shape social processes and structures by ‘selectivity’. However, this shaping does not take place solely on the part of the AI, but only becomes apparent in the interplay with specific restrictions that lie both in the social context of use and in the algorithmic architecture of the AI itself. For research in the sociology of work, this means that contingency theory approaches must be linked with approaches that emphasise the limits of (‘intelligent’) digitalisation. The yield of such a perspective is outlined in relation to the control of work with AI.

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人工智能在工作中的实践

本文提出了一种分析人工智能(AI)的视角，可以在工作社会学中取得丰硕成果。新形式的人工智能(连接主义人工智能)的实践逻辑被描述为开放和关闭知识和行动可能性的社会和技术过程的相互作用。为了发展这一论点，首先展示了人工智能在社会技术背景下可以被理解为一种突发事件生成技术的意义。基于神经网络的架构被阐述为连接主义人工智能的决定性特征，它不仅开辟了技术可能性，而且还可以通过“选择性”塑造社会过程和结构。然而，这种塑造并不仅仅发生在AI的部分，而是在使用的社会背景和AI本身的算法架构中与特定限制的相互作用中变得明显。对于工作社会学的研究，这意味着权变理论方法必须与强调(“智能”)数字化限制的方法联系起来。这种观点的产出与人工智能的工作控制有关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation Business, Management and Accounting-Industrial Relations

CiteScore

3.70

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Work Organisation, Labour and Globalisation aims to: -Provide a single home for articles which specifically address issues relating to the changing international division of labour and the restructuring of work in a global knowledge-based economy. -Bring together the results of empirical research, both qualitative and quantitative, with theoretical analyses in order to inform the development of new interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the restructuring of work, organisational structures and labour in a global context. -Be global in scope, with a particular emphasis on attracting contributions from developing countries as well as from Europe, North America and other developed regions. -Encourage a dialogue between university-based researchers and their counterparts in international and national government agencies, independent research institutes, trade unions and civil society as well as other policy makers. Subject to the requirements of scholarly peer review, it is open to submissions from contributors working outside the academic sphere and encourages an accessible style of writing in order to facilitate this goal. -Complement, rather than compete with, existing discipline-based journals. -Bring to the attention of English-speaking readers relevant articles originally published in other languages.