27/02/2025 (Thursday) 13:00-14:00 E21B-G002
Un-coding AI in Everyday Life: Practices and Reasoning in AI Encounters
Abstract:
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an integral part of everyday life, shaping how lay users engage with technology in routine activities. This presentation explores how non-experts encounter, interpret, and navigate AI systems in everyday contexts, from personalized recommendations to voice assistants and automated decision-making tools. By focusing on practical experiences, it examines the sense-making methods and strategies employed by users to understand and interact with these systems. The discussion emphasises the reasoning processes and practices through which users engage with AI-based technologies in their daily routines. It also highlights the challenges and misconceptions that emerge, shedding light on the diverse forms of knowledge users employ in these encounters. This study seeks to bridge the gap between technological complexity and user understanding, offering sociological insights into the field of eXplainable AI (XAI).
Bio:
After completing her Double BA in Sociology and Political Sciences at the University Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), Patricia pursued postgraduate studies at Cardiff University (UK). There, she earned an MSc in Social Science Research Methods (Sociology pathway) and a PhD in Science and Technology Studies (STS). Her doctoral research was an ethnomethodologically informed ethnography examining the early enactments of the Digital Competency Framework (DCF) in a primary school in Wales, UK. This project provided insights into the interactional accomplishment of ‘digital competence’ in pedagogical settings. Currently, Patricia is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Paderborn (Germany), where she contributes to various multidisciplinary projects exploring eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) from a sociological perspective. In addition, she serves as an Honorary Researcher at Cardiff University, collaborating with the Emerging Technology and Digital Society Research Group (EMTEDS), the Ethnography, Culture and Interpretive Analysis Research Group, and the Cardiff Ethnography, Ethnomethodology, Interaction, and Talk (CEEIT) Research Group.
