ICTs and AI: Adoption, Diffusion, and Societal Impacts

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/112511

Browse

Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    The Challenges of Balancing AI Compliance and Technological Innovations in Critical Sectors: A Systematic Literature Review
    (2026-01-06) Enkhtaivan, Ayush; Uwaoma, Chinazunwa
    The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into critical infrastructure including healthcare, finance, energy, and defense, offers transformative benefits but also conflicts with evolving regulatory and governance frameworks. This paper presents a systematic literature review (SLR) to examine the challenges of balancing AI compliance and technological innovation across critical infrastructure sectors. The review follows established SLR guidelines to extract and synthesize insights from peer-reviewed articles, report, and institutional sources published between 2020–2025. The study identifies three interrelated challenges: fragmented regulations, excessive compliance burdens for smaller to medium enterprises (SMEs), and misaligned governance models. To address these challenges, the study highlights practical governance strategies, including risk-tiered regulation, compliance-by-design, and explainable AI, to support scalable and trustworthy AI deployment in critical sectors. Key contributions include a concise mapping of core AI-governance challenges and a conceptual diagram illustrating their overlap, as well as actionable strategies for policymakers and practitioners to harmonize oversight with innovation.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    First-Level Digital Divides Matter: The Importance of Quality of Access and the Digital Divide in Predicting Internet Use
    (2026-01-06) Blank, Grant; Reisdorf, Bianca C.
    Recent research has examined the reliability and quality of internet access (“under-connectedness”) separately from digital divide issues. This paper examines the relationship between under-connectedness and the digital divide, as well as their impact on internet use. We use the Internet and Computer Use supplement to the 2023 Current Population Survey (CPS) to obtain a representative sample of the U.S. population. We find that digital divide measures are more important than under-connectedness in predicting variety of internet use. This is true both for the population as a whole and for lower-income respondents. Our results indicate that even in countries with near-saturation levels of internet use, first-level digital divides concerning internet and device access continue to play a critical role in people’s internet usage, and these divides need to be considered in digital inequality research, which has largely ignored them in recent years.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    Familiarity with and Attitudes Towards Chatbots: Findings from a Three-Wave National Surveys of U.S. Adults Before and After ChatGPT
    (2026-01-06) Elson, Joel; Kearns, Erin; Vitro, Callie; Nguyen, Tin; Schuetzler, Ryan
    Generative AI technologies like ChatGPT have transformed how people interact with information and services. However, it is unclear (1) what the public knew about chatbots before ChatGPT, (2) how those understandings have evolved, and (3) whether digital divides exist in these understandings. To explore this, we conducted a three-wave national online survey. Wave 1 data were collected just before ChatGPT’s 2022 release; Waves 2 and 3 followed one and two years later. Each wave assessed chatbot familiarity (awareness, use, frequency), and Waves 2 and 3 included generative AI. We also measured trust in, support for, and intentions to use chatbots. We analyzed changes over time and examined differences by age, education, and income. Results suggest that people are more familiar with chatbots post-ChatGPT and use of these technologies is associated with more positive attitudes toward them. We further find evidence of digital divides across age and, increasingly, education and income.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    Empowering the Rural Consumer: The Role of Self-Service Support Models in Enhancing Customer Satisfaction with Satellite Internet Services
    (2026-01-06) Quan, Joanna; Zobel, Christopher
    Rural broadband policy has largely focused on infrastructure deployment, yet the design of service support models can also have a significant impact on user satisfaction. In high-friction rural-remote regions—defined as areas with limited technician access, low provider density, and significant logistical barriers—support structures shape not just usability, but the lived experience of autonomy. This paper thus develops a conceptual model linking support model type (self-service vs. human-assisted) to customer satisfaction, mediated by perceived autonomy. Drawing on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and the Self-Service Technology (SST) literature, and informed by qualitative fieldwork in Rockingham County, Virginia, we theorize that self-service models foster autonomy and thus improve satisfaction—particularly when users own and manage their broadband hardware. This conceptual paper lays the theoretical foundation for understanding how support model design—not just connectivity—shapes customer satisfaction in rural and underserved contexts.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    Introduction to the Minitrack on ICTs and AI: Adoption, Diffusion, and Societal Impacts
    (2026-01-06) Kurnia, Sherah; Choudrie, Jyoti; Sundaram, David