Redefining Algorithmic Intelligence in Practice

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Date & Time: Wednesday, September 17, 14:00–15:30 EEST
Location: Kaleva Hall, Dipoli, Aalto University

Overview

AI systems are proliferating under dominant paradigms of efficiency, scale, control. Presentations in this session use local knowledge, strategic ambiguity, and ethnographic refusal to re-shape AI and create intelligences that are more responsive to local contexts and needs.

Session Leader: Kirsten Bruckbauer, Partner, Bold Insight; Jillian Powers, Senior Director – AI Strategy, Slalom

Presentations

Multiple Intelligences in Knowledge Systems: Integrating Nursing Practice into the Design of Contextual AI for Health

Wilkister Musau, Design and Innovation Specialist, PATH
Christopher Obong’o, Lead Product Manager, Living Labs/Sr. Regional MEL Advisor, PATH

This case study explores how human centered design can be used to ground AI development in local healthcare contexts through the co-creation of a contextualized LLM training dataset. It walks through the adaptation of clinical communication tools and participatory research techniques to capture both technical issues and the lived experience of frontline nurses in Kenya. It also highlights how this approach addresses key challenges for AI in African health systems, such as linguistic nuance and lack of local guidelines. Research Case Study

Presenters & Authors

Wilkister Musau is a Design and Innovation Specialist at PATH’s Living Labs, Kenya. With a strong foundation in health and a commitment to human-centered design (HCD), she develops inclusive, impactful solutions to improve healthcare access. She has led the development of tools for diverse stakeholders across maternal and newborn health, immunization, including COVID-19 response and AI, showcasing her ability to address complex health challenges through a multidisciplinary approach.

Christopher Obong’o is the Lead Product Manager for the Kenya Living labs team. He supports user research, measurement and evaluation, and stakeholder engagement. In addition to this role, Chris leads a number of research activities and supports monitoring, evaluation and learning in the East and Southern Africa region. Chris holds a PhD in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the University of Memphis’ School of Public Health and a Master of Arts in Medical Sociology from the University of Nairobi.

Archerithms and Algotypes: A Case for Productive Confusion through Controlled Equivocation

Isabel Lafuente, Senior UX Researcher, TeacupLab

This paper uses Viveiros de Castro’s concept of “controlled equivocation” to challenge the primary approaches to algorithmic criticism available today. Rather than prioritizing transparency, it explores how embracing opacity and cultural complexity can yield new insights. By framing algorithms as modern archetypes – symbolic, ambiguous, and “spooky” – we suggest a shift in how we understand and interpret algorithmic systems in the context of AI. Paper

Presenter & Author

Isabel Lafuente is a Spanish anthropologist with a background in philosophy, free software, and UX research. She holds a Master’s in Free Software from Universidad Rey Juan Carlos de Madrid and a PhD in Anthropology on grassroots movements in Brazil, where she lived for years. She later transitioned into UX research, working with major tech companies like Samsung, Twitter, New Relic, and Google, applying her multidisciplinary expertise to improve user experiences.

Intelligence as Situated, Ethical, and Attentive: Ethnographic Refusal as a Perennial Frontier

Sena Aydin Bergfalk, Lead Service Designer, Sngular

This paper challenges the dominant industry concept of Intelligence a large-scale data processing optimized for seamless automation, efficiency, and predictive certainty. Drawing on Actor-Network and Meshwork theories and grounded in a practical case study, it redefines intelligence, not as prediction but as attentive response; not as eliminating failure but learning through it; not as objectifying responsibility but embedding it. It presents a strategic approach to shifting an organization’s reliance on predictive certainty and embedding situated, adaptive forms of decision-making and service design into its framework. Paper

Presenter & Author

Sena Aydin Bergfalk is a product researcher and service designer based in Barcelona. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she connects the dots between user needs, stakeholder demands, business goals, and technical possibilities to build the right product or service and build it right. She is currently working as a Lead Service Designer at Sngular.