Keynote Speaker

How Rosy is the Future of AI/GenAI Research?
Highly Viable versus Highly Risky Scholarly Foci on Problems

Detmar Straub
Research Professor
Temple University Fox School of Business

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been badly overhyped since the dawn of computing. About 75 years ago, John Von Neuman, the well-known inventor of computing, thought that thinking machines (termed herein “strong AI”) would soon duplicate human thought processes. He believed as early as the 1960’s that it would quickly exceed human intelligence (intelligence being the operative term here). Lately this belief has been called the “singularity,” the point at which computers exceed all combined, world-wide human intelligence.

None of this has happened. And, arguably, will never happen.

AI and, more recently, GenAI (generative AI), and Large Language Models like ChatGPT have become astonishingly good at mimicking our intelligence, but, at the moment (and likely forever), not duplicating it. This is the sticking point: Weak AI is a force to be reckoned with; strong AI is unreal and a scholarly misdirection. So what should information systems researchers be studying to shed light on how AI will (or should) be incorporated into our societies and lives? This can be formulated as three extremely promising areas: (1) transactional studies; (2) transformative studies; and (3) prescient studies. The argument lying at the heart of the entire presentation is that although we already have weak AI (machine learning, predictive analytics, GenAI, and the like), the prospects of strong AI are tiny, at best, and we, as responsible social scientists, need to adjust our intellectual position accordingly.

Biographical Sketch

Since 2015, Detmar has been a Research Professor and IBIT Fellow at Temple University’s Fox School. A Regents Professor Emeritus of the University System of Georgia and formerly holding a distinguished professorship in the CIS Dept. of the Robinson School of Business at Georgia State University, Detmar has conducted research in the areas of cybersecurity, digital transformation, e-Commerce, technological innovation, international IT studies, and business research methods. He holds a Doctorate in Business Administration in MIS from Indiana University and a PhD in English from Penn State.
 

With 250 total publications (including journal articles, books, book chapters, and editorials), his work has appeared in journals such as MIS Quarterly, Management Science, Information Systems Research, Journal of MIS, Journal of AIS, Decision Sciences Journal, Organization Science, Decision Support Systems, Communications of the ACM, Information & Management, Communications of the AIS, Organizational Research Methods, Information and Organization, DATABASE, OMEGA, Academy of Management Executive, and Sloan Management Review. Detmar has an h-index of 83 (Gaulin, 2024) with nearly 100,000 citations over his career (Google Scholar, 2024).

Detmar is a past Editor-in-Chief of MIS Quarterly (2008-2012), a former Senior Editor for Information Systems Research and Journal of the AIS, and Co-Editor of DATABASE for Advances in Information Systems. He is presently an Associate Editor for the Journal of International Management and the International Journal of Management and Business Analytics (IJMBA). Former VP of Publications for the Association of Information Systems (AIS), he has held roles as co-program chair for ICIS and AMCIS. He was co-general chair of the ICIS conference in Auckland, New Zealand in 2014. He was appointed an AIS fellow in 2005 and awarded a lifetime achievement award (LEO) from AIS in 2012. He was the solo winner of the Alumni Distinguished Professor Award at Georgia State University (2008), given annually for high achievement in research, teaching and service in a faculty of 1,050.

Finally, he has taught masters level courses in Managing in the Global Economy, Computer Security Management, e-Commerce Strategy, IT Strategies for Management, Systems Integration, Global Sourcing, International Business & Global IT Policies as well as doctoral seminars in Quantitative Methods in Business Research, Research Ethics, and Experimental Design. He has served on over 90 doctoral committees as chair or committee member.

Detmar received the Musser Award for Excellence in Research from Temple’s Fox School of Business in 2021. This is the highest award for research activities at the Fox School. Over the past 5 years he has published 8 (eight) articles in widely recognized “A” journals and another 4 (four) in “A-“ journals.