We are thrilled to welcome Professor Susan Scott to the I-X Team!

 

Professor Scott joined Imperial on 1 August as a Professor of Management and Artificial Intelligence at I-X and the Department of Management and Entrepreneurship.

 

Welcome to the I-X team! Could you tell us a bit about yourself and your research interests?

Thank you! I am excited to be joining I-X and looking forward to being part of this wonderful transdisciplinary initiative. From August 1^st, 2024, onwards, I’ll be serving as Professor of Management and Artificial Intelligence, an appointment shared 50/50 between I-X and Imperial College Business School. My research area is the digital transformation of work with an emphasis on responsible innovation and ethics at work.

I am a social scientist specialising in longitudinal field studies of areas undergoing digital transformation. My past studies have examined the development and transformation of valuation practices and evaluative apparatus, information infrastructures, governance and standards.

What attracted you to work at I-X? 

Over the last three decades or so, the London School of Economics and Political Science provided a great foundation for my academic career. I learned a lot from my colleagues in the Information Systems and Innovation faculty where many of the core ideas about socio-technical thinking were advanced. But having studied the introduction of expert systems in credit risk assessment and portfolio management at Cambridge during the early 1990s, I knew that the current generation of AI phenomena would require further research in collaboration with STEM colleagues in a transdisciplinary setting. I-X is the place to be!

What projects are you working on currently and what part of your work is most exciting for you right now?

I am wrapping up a project that has explored the consequences of algorithmic intensification in public sector organizations. Part of this work has entailed learning about privacy enhancing technologies which I’ve found really interesting. As ever, I’m excited to understand AI-in-the-making across multiple settings and taking my research on responsible digital innovation to the next level.

For many years now, the premise of my research approach has been that all work is digital work, we are always already entangled, and configured by digital materiality (algorithms, data streams, sensors, mobile networks, social media, cloud platforms, AI/ML/LLM, etc.). In the rush to AI, I see my role as encouraging those involved to focus on the specificities of digital practices and how they materialise on the ground in practice. Being mindful of the performativity that such practices will have at scale, over time, is both fascinating and vital to responsible digital business transformation.

We know that new technologies, such as AI, have a potential to revolutionise the labour market. From your perspective, what are the main opportunities and risks associated with the introduction of digital innovations on the large scale? 

This is a big question! My hope is that I-X becomes part of a movement that supports multiple stakeholders in how to mindfully make trades offs between opportunities and risks so that we don’t systematically exclude the vulnerable or exacerbate prejudice.

What are you interests outside of work?

I love to walk along the Thames river near where I live in London. My husband and I have two dogs that give us joy and trouble in equal measure. I also take part in community art projects and am a keen gardener.