Learning Outcomes:
• Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the complexity of processes of technology-enabled organisational innovation and the challenges associated with managing them.
• Demonstrate an appreciation for the politics of digital innovation processes and the role of broader institutional contexts in shaping the trajectory of such developments.
• Critically assess the role of contemporary forms of digital innovation in reshaping important aspects of the fabric of social and organisational life, including practices associated with human communication, collaboration, learning, and decision-making.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the differences between human and machine 'intelligence' and the limitations of 'symbolic', or 'knowledge-based', approaches to AI.
• Demonstrate an understanding of 'sub-symbolic', or 'connectionist', approaches to AI, as well as an appreciation of the reasons for their recent rise to prominence, and their associated strengths and limitations.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the role of digital data extractivism in the emergence of new modes of social surveillance and control, as well as the associated threats to traditional forms of individual human agency and to broader democratic institutions.
Indicative Module Content:
Topics covered will likely include: the broader politics of digital innovation; human versus machine 'intelligence'; the role of digital technologies (including GenAI) in reshaping processes of communication, collaboration, knowledge production, learning, and decision-making; and, the emergence of digital datafication and data extractivism as a basis for dangerous new modes of social surveillance and control.