Cristina Mele, Full Professor of Management at the University of Napoli “Federico II”, presentation as part of Cognitive Systems Institute Speaker Series

1. Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Computing
&
Innovating in Practice
Cristina Mele
University of Naples Federico II

2. Agenda
• Recent trends
• Artificial Intelligence & Human Intelligence: the need for
multidisciplinarity
• A post-humanist approach: from technology to socio-material practices
• Framing innovation as innovating in practice
• A focus on Health
• AI & CC as enablers of a texture of practices

3. Opportunities
& Challenges

5. AI & Acquisition

6. •AI = think or behave … as humans
•Machines over humans
•Artificial Intelligence vs Human Intelligence

7. From latin intelligentĭa, …. verb intelligĕre, ”to understand” or verb legĕre, ”read", with intŭs, ”inside";
…who had intelligentĭa was someone able to “read inside” or “go beyond the surface”
Intelligence

8. • AI & CC : A multidisciplinary perspective

9. Technologies as evolution … not as a magical artefact
Early technologies from existing primitive technologies as
components. These new Technologies in time become possible
components – building blocks – for the construction of further new
technologies. Some of these in turn go on to become possible
building blocks for the creation of yet newer technologies. In this
way. Slowly over time, many technologies form from an initial few,
an more complex ones from using simpler ones as components.
The overall collection of technologies bootstraps itself upward from
the few to the many and from the simple to the complex. (Arthur,
2009, p. 21)
“We place our hopes in technology. We
hope in technology to make our lives better,
to solve our problems, to get us out of
predicaments, to provide the future we
want for ourselves and our children.
(Arthur, 2009, p. 11)

10. There is a need to consider the impact that new
technologies, AI & CC have on the social dimension and how
practices are changing to increase well-being.
Socio-material practices
(a posthumanist perspective)

11. • By adopting an overarching concept of service innovation as the
provision of new benefits for market actors (Mele et al. 2010; Vargo
and Lusch 2011) some scholars question the linear traditional process
of innovation (Chesborugh, 2003) and ask how market actors practice
innovation in the age of uncertainty and complexity (Russo Spena and
Mele 2016; Mele and Russo Spena 2017).
From innovation
(Artifact/ outcome side)
To innovating
(the practice side)
Innovating in Practice

12. Innovating in practice
• The active verbal form better reflects the emergent character of
innovation in service ecosystems (Vargo and Lusch, 2011; Vargo et al., 2015).
• Verbs express “a pattern, a set of emergent phenomena, a set of
changes that may induce further changes” (Arthur, 2013, p. 19).
• Innovating takes place in social interaction and in activities
• Innovating in practice: “a collective doing that connects
knowledgeable actors” (Mele and Russo-Spena, 2017).

14. ü From providers to users’ context
üFrom a passive patient to an engaged, equipped user/actor
Engaging empowered users/actors
The river of healthcare is moving. People
are taking health into their own hands.
The center of gravity of healthcare has
moved from hospitals to patients and
from clinics to the home. Now it is
mobile. Actors uses devices and collect
data on their health and wellbeing and
store information wherever they are
(home, office, etc.)
In the past, to do medical exams
people had to book a visit with their
doctor, then go into a specialized
medical center or hospital to do
exams.
Before
NOW

16. Before
NOW
Widening A2A interactions
ü From dyadic to networked / ecosystemic
ü From asymmetric to more balanced
To have different specialized consultation
patients could meet just one physician at
once, then book another visit with another
doctor and so on
Ai & CC give the possibility to actors to get remote help
from experts. They can transmit real-time video and
snapshot with specialized doctors in order to have a
consultation about the patient emergency situation in
realtime.
AI & CC enable to create a virtual clinical environment
providing patients with basic information and
specialists clinical consultation to enable them to
operate virtually except for what it involves touching
the patient. The patients, and his/her family members
can get in touch with more than one specialized
physicians at the same time

17. Buoyuses artificial intelligence to resemble a
chat with your favourite doctor, where you get
an accurate analysis of your symptoms and what
to do
We designed Buoy’s artificial intelligence to
deliver a personalized and more accurate
analysis of your symptoms.
Our virtual assistant answers medical and health questions for
consumers and doctors instantly. The idea behind cognitive
computing, or artificial intelligence, is that our computer
learns by doing, getting at its tasks better over time by
crunching more medical information

19. Involving new and knowledgeable actors
Devices
providers
Hospitals
Users
Health
intermediari
es
Emergency
Departme
nt
Doctors
Operational
Center
Medical staff
Caregivers
AI & CC offer a number of exciting
potential applications for patient care, I
really think this could transform both
what we do and how we do it. These
technologies could really have a major
impact on how we practice medicine
(a quote from a doctor)
Bay Labs is at the forefront of bringing deep learning advances
to critical unsolved problems in healthcare. We have assembled
an exceptional team of clinicians, engineers, and scientists who
are developing breakthrough technologies in cardiovascular
imaging and care to combat heart disease, the leading cause of
death worldwide.

20. The doctors and researchers had to meet
patients in their office to study and research
parameters linked to episodes of illness.
Taking into consideration the events related
to illness episodes, physicians could observe
only data recorded during the visit, and if
something happened when the patient was
outside of the health centre it was impossible
to study the symptoms.
üFrom Knowledge as object to knowledge as activity
üContinuous, real-time data acquisition in daily life
ü Advance understanding of human behavior in real life settings
Through AI & CC, knowledge is co-created through
continuous and real-time observation of healthcare
parameters, thereby advancing understanding of human
behaviour in real-life settings.
Doctors can first of all detect seizures every time they
happen; in addition, they can correlate seizures to
symptoms and help identify whether there are certain
factors that influence them. Data become richer as they
include new information about wearer, viz. health
parameters, enabling the decision makers (e.g., doctors
or physicians) to obtain a full understanding of the
meaning behind the data collected.
Before
NOW
Knowing in action

21. ….more comprehensive situational awareness. ……apply knowledge to
data enables it to more quickly and effectively extract knowledge from
data. ….use reasoning and thoughtful user experience to clear away the
ambiguity and pinpoint the truth. …..help assist people's actions and
enable them to make timely and informed decisions.

22. With AI &CC researchers and doctors have
continuous data and a more complete
understanding of the phenomenon thanks to
data recorded by patients. Patients can record
and keep track of their own data. These data can
serve as a starting point to give patients more
control of their health and provide physicians
information on daily habits. Such information
can be analyzed by AI & CC potentially catching
problems before they start.
Resourcing in interactions
Doctors had to search patient information
and medical history in a folder, which was
physically and/or electronically stored,
spending a great amount of time. In
addition, if patients needed different
specialised consultation he should met just
one physician at once, and then should book
another visit with another doctor, and so on.
Before
NOW
üKnowing emerges through human and non human interaction

23. The active brain trainer
Intendu is a functional brain-body training console for people with brain
impairments. It was designed by an interdisciplinary team of
neuroscientists, rehabilitation clinicians, computer scientists and gaming
experts, creating an unparalleled training tool for home use that adds to
the user’s rehabilitation process. Intendu’s life-simulating games focus on 8
main cognitive functions

24. ü From space constraints to everywhere
ü From time constraints to real time
Overcoming time/space constrains
People have always a doctor wherever they
are. They can have a consultation through
audio-video communication devices without
moving from home, also during the night or
holidays when the personal doctor is not
available. As the parameters are
continuously monitored, in case of
anomalies users can have an home visit or
in emergency cases an ambulance. In
addition, the Medical Passport is recorded
and all data can be shared.
To have a consultation people were
obliged to go to the doctor during
work-hours, if something happen
during the night or holidays or
when the doctor’s office was closed
people had to go at hospital and wait
for their turn, also for hours if it was
not an emergency.
Before
NOW

26. • From the arefacts to a collective doing that connects knowledgeable actors (doctors,
patients, health intermediaries, caregivers, ecc.).
• Innovating emerges as constantly co-constructed by connections-in-action involving both
humans and non-human interwoven in a texture of interconnected practices.
• Knowing + Networking = a texture;
AI, CC & Innovating in practice
N
E
T
W
O
R
K
I
N
G
K N O W I N G
Engaging empowered users/actors
Widening A2A interactions
Involving new and knowledgeable actors
Knowing in action
Resourcing in interaction
Overcoming time/space constrains

27. Democratizing health
• The healthcare moves from hospitals to homes, from passive patients to
empowered and proactive patients to knowledgeable actors
• Health ecosystem. This includes family, friends, and alternative healthcare
providers as well as a host of wellness services.
• A human-centred suite of devices using AI &CC to empower everyday people to
monitor and better understand their health anytime, anywhere.
Improving wellbeing
• AI & CC are not only technology improvements but are resources within actors’
activities and A2A relationships
• AI, CC, smart devices as resources to be integrated … enabling new practices
A new healthcare?

28. • Understand the technology/social role of AI & CC
• Design new roles for actors by increasing their knowledgeability
• Enabling networking and knowing
Challenges
• Emergent problem of responsibility (hospital, doctor, user, other
health service providers, etc.)
• New problems of security, privacy, etc.
• Normative practices
• …….
Implications

29. Research Group
at Department of Economics, Management, Institutions
University of Naples Federico II
Chaired by
Cristina Mele cristina.mele@unina.it
Tiziana Russo Spena tiziana.russospena@unina.it