Barbara Ribeiro, Associate Professor at SKEMA Business School, is particularly interested in the sociological aspects of science, technology and innovation, including the emergence and practice of responsible innovation. She tells us more about her work, what surprised her the most and how her research is impacting society.
Could you tell us more about your field of research?
My research focuses on our relationship with technology and innovation and their impact on society and organisations. I am particularly interested in aspects related to ethics, responsibility, and social and environmental sustainability in the context of the governance of technological change. My research has covered diverse topics such as biotechnology, synthetic biology, automation and digital technologies and, more recently, artificial intelligence (AI).
What results surprised you the most?
With colleagues from The University of Manchester in the UK, I published a study looking at the relationship between digitalisation and everyday scientific practice. The paper puts forward a novel and surprising paradox that we empirically identified in our research. We demonstrate that automation and digital technologies designed and implemented to save time and increase productivity may end up increasing the number and diversity of tasks that knowledge workers must perform.
What is the research you are currently carrying out?
At the moment, I am working on different projects on digital technologies and AI. One example of recent research I have been developing with colleagues from the UK and the US investigates public values in AI inventions and innovation. For this work, we have developed a novel method for large-scale text analysis that allows us to study thousands of AI patent documents.
How does this study impact society at large?
Our aim is to get a better understanding of how the AI landscape aligns with societal needs and concerns, including issues of public health, privacy and security, and bias and discrimination, among others. Focusing on public values, we are able to shed light on the trajectory of responsible innovation in AI and offer recommendations for private and public actors who develop, implement and regulate such technologies.