From likelihood to desirability: Investigating the role of speculative methods and approaches to foster responsible AI in healthcare

However, the ways in which these approaches contribute to research project goals at large is not fully understood by researchers less familiar with research involving speculative practices. One issue is that speculation means different things to different disciplines. In critical design traditions, speculative inquiry is about possibility thinking, the asking of “What if …?” whereas in the sciences it commonly refers to the proposition of hypotheses in the course of explaining, without having certainty of needed evidence.

The connection between the two is the presence of uncertainty. In this paper we lean into the uncertainty connection, asking: “What if uncertainty is a necessary condition of technological innovation in healthcare? What might happen if speculative inquiry is acknowledged as a legitimate research approach?

How might this be defined and embedded within current and future research structures? This paper responds to these provocations through a case study of interdisciplinary speculative workshops that came about after the initiation of an artistic research program, within ELSA-NN. The preliminary results were encouraging and urged us to further investigate the potential contribution of speculative approaches to responsible AI in healthcare through 1) reviewing current</p><p dir="ltr">literature on the role of speculation in science and humanities , and 2) <b>Prepare and organize an unconference to co-create methods and tools.</b></p>