AI is changing how we interact with one another and, by extension, how we come to perceive ourselves as humans. The prime minister is eager to get on the front foot with calls for a global regulator, while businesses, organisations and academic institutions alike are struggling to adapt to such change. A new book from Oxford University Press on the subject of phenomenology – the understanding of our lives through subjective experience as opposed to objective analysis – might just bring some solutions.
If we believe the media, the rise of digital technology, and in particular Artificial Intelligence (AI), may prove the greatest existential threat to mankind since the atomic bomb. Barely a day goes by without a story that decries modern technology at home, in the workplace and at schools and universities, fueling fears that robots might steal our jobs, alter our lifestyles and, eventually, deprive us of our humanity.
Several AI pioneers are calling for a self-imposed brake on development to be applied, while politicians are scrambling to be seen to be leading the way in regulating how AI is used and what it can do. Just last week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for there to be a global regulator to keep AI in check. It is said that every generation has its own particular existential crisis, and while this one may be no different, we could be forgiven for worrying when we hear the creators of ChatGPT call for much tighter inter-governmental regulation of AI-based tech such as theirs.
Whatever we believe, and however we fear (or don’t fear) the future, there is no doubt that the world is changing, and fast. Who would have believed, three years ago, that many of us would now be experiencing remote working, Zoom calls, four-day weeks and the like? Technology might have liberated us from the so-called tyranny of the office, yet in the same moment we miss the human contact we had when Covid was an unknown word and we enjoyed/endured the time with our work colleagues.
“If we give phenomenology a very simple definition – that it is the way in which people perceive things, the way they feel and experience the world that surrounds them – then it is very relevant in a modern context,” says Jeremy Aroles, Senior Lecturer in Organisation Studies at the University of York’s School for Business and Society and one of the editors of The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenologies and Organization Studies.
“Increasingly, technologies are mediating the way we interact, and this has been visible in the context of the pandemic, when everything suddenly became digital. Now we rely on different technologies to communicate and work, which means we have different ways of experiencing work, our relations with others and so forth.”
“From the perspectice of businesses, it is vital to gain a better understanding of technological mediations at the workplace. Phenomenology would argue that the growing reliance of technology, in a work context, is not neutral; the fact we are using more and more tech at work is profoundly altering how we work and how we perceive ourselves as individuals and employees. Arguably then, it is in the interest of organisations to reflect and consider these aspects, thus paying attention to how technologies are altering human interactions through changing work practices.”
In the early years of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger could see that while technology made lives easier (in functional terms), it also reconfigured and framed how people understand the world. In seeking efficiency and convenience through technology, people’s lives are increasingly cut off from experience and, arguably, more meaningless since they no longer learn the skills that had previously given them purpose. Fast forward a century and we see rows of people on public transport, in restaurants, shops, offices and pubs, just scrolling and scrolling through their phones. Is this meaningless, or something else – a new relationship with technology, perhaps, and one that we are still trying to understand?
“There are chapters in the book which turn towards the future, considering the kind of changes that might take place and what these might mean for us as humans” says Aroles. “If we take ChatGPT for example, what is interesting is the potential of this tech to change relations between students, lecturers and universities in terms of commitment and expectations. This can potentially change how universities understand assessment, knowledge and the kind of training they wish to provide to students; if we have a piece of tech that can write an assignment that will pass a course this might mean there are issues in the way courses are designed and assessed.”
“This means that, ultimately, universities will have to critically re-think their relation to students and their role, as individuals and members of a broader collective, in the university ecosystem and broader society.”
“In a nutshell, the idea is that through phenomenology, you have the means to interrogate these new relationships that keep emerging as the world is changing. This is one of the key messages behind the book, that phenomenology gives you the conceptual tools needed to make sense of the world around you, and yourself as an individual in that context.”
“More and more students are questioning the kind of organisations they want to work in and the work they want to do. I notice that students care about the value of the organisations for which they are working and the environment they expect to find in such organisations. Being receptive to relations, experiences and feelings in organizations, which phenomenology sensitivises us to, might help students figure out the sort of organisation they want to work with and, in turn, organizations how they can appeal to new talents.”
There is no doubt that trying to turn back tech is this generation’s King Canute moment. Instead, we need to redefine our relationship with it, making sure that experiential, subjective elements – those which make us human, and give our worlds meaning – are not forgotten in the race for speed and convenience. Overall, phenomenology can offer a human-centred and experiential lens through which we can engage with technology.
NOTES
· The Oxford Handbook of Phenomenologies and Organization Studies, edited by François-Xavier de Vaujany, Jeremy Aroles, and Mar Pérezts, is out now. Click here for more information.
· Jeremy Aroles is available for interview.
· Jeremy is also available for comment on any related story you may be working on and will provide fascinating insight into new ways of working with technology.
· Call 07875 138 147 or email wdavis@insightm.co.uk to make arrangements.
