Theorising the Digital Artefact in Dark Sides Research

Rapid advancements in the sophistication and diffusion of advanced digital technologies such as AI warrant repose to consider their unintended consequences or ‘dark sides’. While more attention has been directed towards the ethical implications of disruptive technologies, discussions on the underlying materiality of the digital artefacts are often missing. In this article, we call for IS researchers to better conceptualise how technical objects contribute towards the emergence of negative outcomes for users, either intentionally or unintentionally. Examples are provided of conceptual and empirical papers that have sought to open the ‘black box’ of technology to elucidate this issue. We propose sociomateriality as a theoretical lens to guide studies in this area and present a future research agenda that encourages novel methodological approaches such as design science to uncover the dark side of emerging digital artefacts.