Yifan Xu is a postdoctoral researcher who joined the Center for Transformative Media in August. She’ll be working with Dr. de Souza e Silva on the Mobile Networked Creativity Project and will also be assisting with funding development and grant applications.

Xu researches organizational communication and technology, with a particular focus on the social dimensions of technology such as how technology is created and how it influences teamwork and organizational operations.

For this edition of the Scholar Spotlight series, CTM Communications Specialist Claire Ogden interviewed Xu about her dissertation research, her path from veterinary science to communication research, and more.

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Center for Transformative Media (CTM): How did you first become interested in organizational communication? And when or how did AI become incorporated into that research?

YX: Oh my gosh, I don’t really know how to get this started. I’m not, like, a typical social scientist, but long story short, I went to school for veterinary medicine initially. And then I worked in the biotech industry doing medicine research.

I was just always interested in the organizational aspect of how things work. Like, how do people work together? How do people interact with each other?

I was working in the Bay Area as a researcher, and that was the moment I came to the realization that this was not something I wanted to do for the rest of my life, so, I should just get out and try something different and see if I can pivot into something I’m passionate about.

I went back to school, and this program I was in, called Organizational Communication and Technology, had a very heavy aspect of understanding how technology affects our work and the organizations we operate in. It was a happy coincidence based on what I had experienced during my work, which was basically in the center of Silicon Valley. I was just bombarded by all the AI research, like, a lot of technology hypes were going on and I was just like, ‘what’s going on here?’ Like, these technologies are clearly not the way they’re described. They have a lot of issues, and so I really wanted to understand that social aspect of technology, and then how technologies impact society, organizations, and our day-to-day lives. So all these dots started coming together.

CTM: And how are you seeing AI be integrated into studies on organizational communication? I’m so curious about how one studies AI in the context of social science.

YX: I guess traditionally we understand AI technologies as mediums for communication, but they’re not just mediums now, they are participants in organizations. So a lot of times, organizations or companies implement some kind of technology, saying ‘oh, there’s issue, let’s use this technology to fix it.’

So they think they can just plug in a technology and everything’s fixed. The reality is, technologies are participants in the social environments, so you can’t just plug something in without changing other things. It’s interacting with humans, with the environment, and it’s shaping the organizational structure. So everything would need to change to properly accommodate the technology. Otherwise, it will fail. That’s why so many attempts to adopt and implement new technologies fail.

CTM: What has been most surprising to you in terms of how AI is an actor in a mostly human environment?

YX: My dissertation research focused on robotics design, so AI as in an embodied AI context. So basically, technologists developing robots that are powered by AI.

The technologists end up taking care of the robots as if they’re their babies, when they achieve something tiny, like humanoids walking the first step, and they’ll be, like, cheering for the robots.

It’s such a humane aspect of technology development, which is often conceived as this linear process. There’s no emotions involved; it’s objective; it’s just people passively manipulating the objects. But this is really not the case, because they are investing so many emotions and taking care of this, like, robot baby to just make tiny little bit of progress. So part of this study is really showing the pro-social aspect of engineers.

In critical literature, a lot of times we portray those technology creators as evil or not thinking about the social aspects of technologies. But they’re… they’re really… they’re really invested. They really want their robotic child to be successful, to be, you know, the next big thing. So there’s just such a human aspect of it.

CTM: Do you want to talk a little bit more about your dissertation? You’re probably sick of talking about it by now, but what were some of your main takeaways?

YX: Right. So there’s a lot of research in technology design, but there’s not a lot of understanding about the mechanisms or the processes through which those technologies are created.

So, I think it’s just about engaging with technologists, with engineers, and to really understand the human aspect of them, and why do they do this line of work? And how can we, as social scientists, to build a bridge to reach out, to go into their site and see what they’re doing?

I just feel like it’s a constructive use of social science methods to see how we can support them to develop better technologies, rather than just criticizing them from the outside.

CTM: Was there ever a time in your dissertation where you gave recommendations to technologists? And if so, what were those recommendations?

YX: Definitely. I think I had a very positive experience with the engineers I worked with, which is often not the case for other people. They really respected me. Whenever I gave recommendations, they were always very willing to listen.

So one of the recommendations I gave them was that, when the robot demo videos are released on public platforms, you only see the robot. The robot is doing things competently and right away, which is nowhere close to the reality. So my recommendation for them was to increase visibility of the engineers and the work they are doing, so we don’t overhype the AI, which can lead to public fear of AI, or certain expectations that are not aligned with the technology’s current capabilities.

CTM: And how were you able to foster that good working relationship with the engineers you did your dissertation research with?

YX: It took me probably a year to just build those personal relationships. I basically moved my entire workspace into their lab, so I’m just there all the time.

And I go to lunch with them. I ask questions. I also become technically competent, so whenever a robot breaks down, I’m there. I’m helping them to do the work. I just naturally become a part of the team.

And whenever I was able to show my technical confidence, and just really helping them to solve a problem, they’re like, ‘oh, wow, you’re one of us.’ So, it took a lot of time, a lot of patience, a lot of curiosity about the individuals, too. Because our work lives and personal identities, all those things are kind of entangled.

CTM: Do you feel like that veterinary science background helped you with those technical elements of being able to step in and help with the robot?

YX: Surprisingly, it did. So those robots are humanoids. And when I was helping them to fix the robot, it was just laying on the surgery table, and I was helping them to put on tiny little screws and things like that. I was like, oh my god, this reminds me of all the animal surgery operations I did ages ago.

CTM: How do you feel like your industry background has translated into academia? And what was it like making that shift?

YX: Oh, it was hard. I didn’t even have a communication studies background. So I went to Texas State University for a year to take some master’s classes there. And I had never taken a single communication course but fortunately, I had a lot of support from the department, so I was able to catch up. But that period of my life was just insane.

But I feel like even with, like my job. A lot of times, I’m just learning on the fly, but you kind of have to do that. Everything’s evolving all the time. There’s no way that I can know everything, so just reaching out to people, finding the right people who know things, and really putting yourself out there is how I’ve been able to grow.

CTM: Maybe as a fun final question, do you have any hobbies in your personal life that you’ve applied this learning mindset to?

YX: Absolutely. I got into improv comedy during the pandemic, so that was just a way to really challenge myself. I never did any sort of theater-related stuff in school, so I was kind of scared of getting up on the stage and performing in front of people. But it felt kind of low stakes, and I was able to do it with friends and other people who were supportive of my endeavor. That really pushed me, to be able to get onto this stage with no fear.

Then later on, I actually got into comedy. I had a friend who was so supportive of me doing public speaking and, like, live storytelling and stand-up. They trained me a little bit, gave me a bunch of tips and feedback, so I was able to do it.

When I was back in Austin, I was actually the headliner for this storytelling-slash-standup series. And the entire theater sold out, because all my friends wanted to come to see me. That felt great.