Leonelli, Sabina and Mussgnug, Alexander (2025) Convenience AI. [Preprint]
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Abstract
This paper considers the mundane ways in which AI is being incorporated into scientific practice today, and particularly the extent to which AI is used to automate tasks perceived to be boring, “mere routine” and inconvenient to researchers. We label such uses as instances of “Convenience AI” — that is situations where AI is applied with the primary intention to increase speed and minimize human effort. We outline how attributions of convenience to AI applications involve three key characteristics: (i) an emphasis on speed and ease of action, (ii) a comparative element, as well as (iii) a subject-dependent and subjective quality. Using examples from medical science and development economics, we highlight epistemic benefits, complications, and drawbacks of Convenience AI along these three dimensions. While the pursuit of convenience through AI can save precious time and resources as well as give rise to novel forms of inquiry, our analysis underscores how the uncritical adoption of Convenience AI for the sake of shortcutting human labour may also weaken the evidential foundations of science and generate inertia in how research is planned, set-up and conducted, with potentially damaging implications for the knowledge being produced. Critically, we argue that the consistent association of Convenience AI with the goals of productivity, efficiency, and ease, as often promoted also by companies targeting the research market for AI applications, can lower critical scrutiny of research processes and shift focus away from appreciating their broader epistemic and social implications.
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| Item Type: | Preprint | |||||||||
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| Keywords: | Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Convenience, Medicine, Development Economics | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence Specific Sciences > Economics Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Technology |
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| Depositing User: | Mr Alexander Mussgnug | |||||||||
| Date Deposited: | 10 Mar 2025 14:13 | |||||||||
| Last Modified: | 10 Mar 2025 14:13 | |||||||||
| Item ID: | 24891 | |||||||||
| Subjects: | Specific Sciences > Artificial Intelligence Specific Sciences > Economics Specific Sciences > Medicine General Issues > Technology |
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| Date: | 2025 | |||||||||
| URI: | https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/24891 |
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