In the paper entitled ‘Five Transitions of Algorithmic Governmentality in the Composition of Medical Temporality’, published in the special issue ‘Technology and Algorithmic Governmentality: Social and Political Transformations in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, part of the research team explores the implications of incorporating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into practical frameworks for temporal organisation in clinical settings.

Many of the contemporary hopes linked to the handling of diffuse information and intensive information processing – leading to the fine-tuning and alignment of prioritisation and diagnostic processes ‘in tune’ with standard routines – are linked to the incorporation of AI into policy-making and clinical care. However, beyond the acceleration of processes, this would entail a transformation in the understanding and implementation of medical temporality. The article explores five of these implications, presented as ‘transitions’ between current standard models of medical practice and those incorporating AI.

Below is a summary of the publication:

Artificial Intelligence has permeated numerous social contexts, and medicine is no exception. It forms part of the recent hopes being articulated to address issues linked to the temporal nature of routine medical practices. In this paper, we analyse five transformations that Artificial Intelligence brings to the organisation of medical temporality, considering how this relates to changes in the dynamics of power shaped by the notion of algorithmic governmentality. To this end, we draw on a study of the healthcare system in Chile, which involves the development of a multi-sited ethnography based on ministerial contexts and public and private clinical care settings. We have gathered data through focused ethnographies, news analysis and in-depth interviews with experts and professionals, and have structured the findings using abductive analysis. The five transitions described take into account the algorithmic, iterative, itinerant, interstitial and organismic nature of the temporality constituted by scenarios in which Artificial Intelligence plays a part. We conclude by highlighting the link between these transformations and the understanding of algorithmic governmentality within the medical sphere.