Erik Brynjolfsson (who has moved to Stanford from MIT) and I recently spoke about our ongoing research effort focused on AI-enabled robots in warehousing at one of CNBC’s Tech Councils:

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/16/why-amazon-warehouses-tesla-auto-plants-will-not-go-100percent-robot.html

I was flabbergasted to receive the award for Best Published Paper of the Year (2019) in August from the OCIS (Organizational Communication Information Systems) division of the Academy of Management. Quite a life moment. UC Santa Barbara Engineering wrote up a summary of this honor, including information about the article and the work it has inspired:

https://www.engineering.ucsb.edu/news/shining-light-shadow-learning

Always grateful to write for Wired. This one’s a big piece, and lays out some of the core ideas in much bigger writing project I’m about to get going. https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-to-adapt-to-tech-were-heading-into-the-shadows/

The BBC just published a piece on the range of possibilities as we introduce robots into the world of work. Corinne (the author and journalist) interviewed me for the piece and clearly did a good deal of homework in the process. Happy also to have been able to connect her with the team at FLIR (formerly Endeavor robotics, formerly iRobot) that designs, builds, sells and helps to field the PackBot.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200219-what-do-we-look-for-in-a-good-robot-colleague

I gathered my data in 2014-2016, and when she interviewed me, ⁦Katja Ridderbusch of U.S. News and World Report said Robotically Assisted Surgery was still “The Wild West of Surgical Training.” I think this partly explains why robotic and traditional outcomes are similar.

Robotically Assisted Surgery: ‘The Wild West of Surgical Training’
After almost 20 years, there is still no standardized training curriculum or unified credentialing policy for robotically assisted surgery.

Excited and honored to see my HBR article and related podcast up in lights over at HBR.org! These pieces take the thesis outlined in my Shadow Learning research and test it across numerous industries, types of work and technology. The core findings seem quite similar, though comparing across cases added some new, useful insights and guidelines.

Today Wired published my op-ed on where we’ll see economy-scale impact from robots in the short run. Hint: it’s not in pizza delivery.

Interviewed by Steve Levine of Axios a few days ago, and he quickly pulled together this interesting summary. And I was glad to see him review at least one of the other superb ethnographies by young researchers that I drew upon for my broader findings.

https://www.axios.com/ai-unready-1c68c153-49a5-4c52-94af-c996870da258.html

Genuinely bowled over that my study got 19+k upvotes and a lively discussion on Reddit Science. Many junior surgeons and residents weighed in.

A study has found that junior surgeons need years of training before becoming excellent surgeons. However, with the advent of robotic surgery, the junior surgeon’s practice is significantly reduced, and evidence suggests that junior surgeons don’t acquire the skills they require. from science