EmTech Anthropology

Matt Artz is an anthropologist, designer, and technologist specializing in AI product development. He is the founder of Azimuth Labs, host of the Anthropology in Business and Anthro to UX podcasts, and co-editor of EmTech Anthropology and the forthcoming Anthropology and AI. His work has been featured on TED, UNESCO, South by Southwest, and Apple’s Planet of the Apps.Dr. Lora Koycheva is an anthropologist and technologist working at the intersection of anthropology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and robotics. She is Assistant Professor at the Chair of Technoscience Studies in Brandenburg Technical University. She is also building Robots, actually! – a global initiative to rebuild the human condition with robots. From 2020 to 2023, she was a convenor of the EASA Applied Anthropology Network. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Northwestern University.

A healthy, heartfelt piece of food for thought for all anthropologists who work in interdisciplinary teams – and not least those who do not, yet! Served with humor, the authors remind us to move beyond our anthro-egos and embrace the perspectives of “the other” to enable the impact of our discipline. The brilliance of the argument, is that we must shift our own perspectives and look outwards, to enable making own perspectives relevant, for the sake of a better future of tech.Louise Vang Jensen, Anthropologist, co-CEO and Partner in the Strategic Innovation Agency, IS IT A BIRDThis book presents a compelling premise: anthropology, once a prominent public platform for voicing concerns, lost its way in higher education and society. But anthropologists in business today are intervening to create meaningful change by confronting our most vexing human problems. The authors detail how a new generation of business anthropologists are applying their knowledge to shape sociotechnical transformations in AI, robotics, genetic engineering, and other emerging technologies, while addressing what it means to be human. Readers can enjoy a series of rich, informative, and descriptive stories of careers, choices, and actions that anthropologists take to make transformational change happen, and it comes at a highly relevant time: to portend not just the future of technology but potential futures of humankind.Timothy de Waal Malefyt, Ph.D., Clinical Professor of Marketing at the Gabelli school of Business, Fordham UniversityAnthropology is in the throes of change as fieldwork and problem solving are expanding rapidly into organizational settings, particularly in tech. Today’s trailblazers are partnering with others as active problem solvers at the “cutting edge.” Gone is anthropology’s insularity, as new theory, methods, and models are tested and put to use serving diverse communities. These anthropology innovators bring a “solutions mindset” to their work as they reinvent what anthropology is and demonstrate its value and impact.Elizabeth K. Briody, Founder and Principal Cultural Keys LLC, and Chair Anthropology Career Readiness Network

• AcknowledgementsForeword1 Introduction 2 Everyday Life, Ever-Present AI: Data and Privacy in Voice Assistants and Chatbots 3 Reimagining Recommender Systems: Towards a More Equitable Model for Creators 4 Towards an Anthro-Centric Cybersecurity 5 Cargo Cult or Kula Ring? The Battle for Shared Ethos in Web3 6 Anthropology is Good to Build With: From Ethnographic Imagination to Anthropological Speculation in Robotics 7 Latin American NewSpace: Anthropological Collaborations and Critiques8 Good Ethnography for Good Food: Making Genetic Engineering Palatable to the US Market 9 Biotechnology and Anthropology: Bringing Human Experience into Focus 10 The Space Between: Charting the Past and Future Relationships between Anthropology and Emerging Technologies