The DIGITO project has published the first research results on the domestication of artificial intelligence in public services. In our case study, we explored how artificial intelligence and emerging data-driven technologies are made familiar and by whose voices they are talked about in the media. Empirically, we examined communication materials and media coverage from the joint AI experiment between the City of Espoo and Tieto Corporation in 2017–18. In this experiment, Tieto Corporation combined customer data from the City of Espoo’s social and health care and early childhood education from 2002–2016 and analysed this data using artificial intelligence methods. Theoretically, we drew on the tradition of the social construction of technology and especially its branch that focuses on the domestication of technologies.
Our results show that the means of narration used by the media – repetition and highlighting the voice of the representatives of the institutional actors involved in the AI experiment – strengthen the agency and interests of the parties involved as well as their visibility in the media, while reducing the space for possible critical discussion. We argue that this way, AI is made familiar and acceptable to citizens and in public services in Finland.
Alastalo, M., Parviainen, J. & Choroszewicz, M (2022) Tekoälyteknologian kotoistaminen julkisiin palveluihin: Tapaus Espoon tekoälykokeilu [Domesticating AI technology in public services. The case of the City of Espoo’s artificial intelligence experiment ] Yhteiskuntapolitiikka [Social Politics] 3/2022, p. 185–196. https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2022060844676