Carl Westin

179 tification of problem-solving styles and the individual tuning of decision support. Here, machine learning techniques can pave the way forward. In association with these are also several ethical concerns. Personalized systems have the power to in- fluence acceptance and trust independent from the system’s actual performance and reliability. Other ethical concerns are related to the modeling and “mimicking” of a person’s behavior, and individual privacy. The broad philosophical value of this thesis is tied to Alan Turing’s proposed “imitation game” for defining artificial intelligence, captured by his intriguing ques- tion: “can machines think?” 38 The game argues that a machine can be considered intelligent, inseparably from that of a human, provided an interrogator conversing with the machine believes it to be another human. While artificial intelligence falls outside the scope of this thesis, the concept of strategic conformance denotes such capable machines that can solve problems analogously to its human counterpart. Thereby, the investigations of conformal decision support in this thesis has served an equally intriguing and perhaps more important question, also posed by Turing: “is the question (can machines think?) a worthy one to investigate?” (p. 434). 38 Automated systems in safety-critical domains should not be personalized simply because they can be. In fact, personalized applications, such as conformal decision support, may not be desirable in many contexts. Particular domains involving many actors, characterized by significant teamwork and collaboration, may not be suitable for conformal automation, as it may hamper a shared understanding. The benefits of a personalized system must therefore be weighed against the desire and need for a homogeneous workplace. As such, there is a sensitive balance to be considered, with the benefits of personalizing automation to an individual’s acceptance and per- formance at one end, and the desire for suppressing individuality altogether in order to attain an organized and structured environment needed for facilitating effective and safe teamwork at the other end.