ESR photo Research project Acceptance of artificial intelligence in health-related contexts About the project The project focusses on the support of people who suffer from chronic diseases and their medical staff by means of intelligent technology. It will investigate the required as well as desired functions of these solutions depending on the respective context and user group. In addition, it will examine the perceived benefits and barriers, including usage conditions for these intelligent technologies in a broad range of healthcare settings. The goal is to develop an acceptance cartography of intelligent technology to provide the healthcare industry with knowledge about the benefits, in addition to a critical analysis about the potential risks regarding privacy, dignity, and control. Start date: October 2021 End date: September 2023 Progress of the project During the initial months, literature research was developed and the identification of common research themes in the field of Artificial Intelligence and health was initiated. In January 2022 the project moved forward to carry out the first explorative mixed-method study on the public perception of Artificial Intelligence. During the interviews participants were asked a series of qualitative open-ended questions about the topic of AI e.g., what AI was, where did they encounter AI in everyday life, or what they thought the benefits of such a technology were. In addition to these qualitative questions, some quantitative items were included in the study too. These were items for which participants should indicate their level of agreement. These items were about three different categories: “What AI could do”, “What AI should do”, “What AI is allowed to do”. These three categories were mirrored among some general contexts such as finance, entertainment, or mobility, and the context of healthcare. As a result of the secondments of ESR5 and ESR15 at RWTH, a collaborative theoretical paper was written on the definition of informational privacy from three perspectives: law, philosophy, and social sciences. The research continued studying the potential development and necessary acceptance factors of AI-technologies. Two studies were started. One was a validation study for the initial explorative mixed-method approach. It included items about knowledge, perception, and expectation about AI. Also, items about affinity for technology and technology acceptance were included. The second study was about ethical considerations in the context of AAL. This questionnaire included items on moral attentiveness and is designed to capture the ethical awareness of people using a scenario-based approach. Scientific publications Can we agree on what privacy means? Philosophical, legal, and social context Maksymilian M. Kuźmicz, Tamara Mujirishvili, Alexander Hick, Francisco Flórez-Revuelta Can we agree on what privacy means? Philosophical, legal, and social context In Conference proceedings Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposion (IRIS), 2025 What does the public think about artificial intelligence?—A criticality map to understand bias in the public perception of AI Philipp Brauner, Alexander Hick, Ralf Philipsen, Martina Ziefle What does the public think about artificial intelligence?—A criticality map to understand bias in the public perception of AI Frontiers in Computer Science, vol. 5, pp. 19 A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF AI Alexander Hick, Martina Ziefle A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF AI International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics (IJCI), Vol. 11, No.4, 2022. About the ESR Alexander received his MSc in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh in 2021. In his thesis he investigated perception regarding conscious and unconscious features of phenomenal consciousness. He holds a BSc in cognitive neuropsychology from Tilburg University. Contact information Alexander Hick Chair of Communication Science Institute of Language and communication studies Human-Computer Interaction Center RWTH Aachen University Campus Boulevard 57 52074 Aachen, Germany Email address: hick@comm.rwth-aachen.de
Can we agree on what privacy means? Philosophical, legal, and social context Maksymilian M. Kuźmicz, Tamara Mujirishvili, Alexander Hick, Francisco Flórez-Revuelta Can we agree on what privacy means? Philosophical, legal, and social context In Conference proceedings Internationales Rechtsinformatik Symposion (IRIS), 2025
What does the public think about artificial intelligence?—A criticality map to understand bias in the public perception of AI Philipp Brauner, Alexander Hick, Ralf Philipsen, Martina Ziefle What does the public think about artificial intelligence?—A criticality map to understand bias in the public perception of AI Frontiers in Computer Science, vol. 5, pp. 19
A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF AI Alexander Hick, Martina Ziefle A QUALITATIVE APPROACH TO THE PUBLIC PERCEPTION OF AI International Journal on Cybernetics & Informatics (IJCI), Vol. 11, No.4, 2022.