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For over a decade, researchers from the practice-centered computing community are taking social practices as a unit of design. While the first generation focused on a social practice in isolation, more recent work argues for the (inter-)connections of mutually influencing practices as the primary unit of design. We discuss these current approaches to motivate the notion of a network of practices. Utilizing the case of food practices, we construct and analyze a network populated by the answers of 60 participants. Based on this network we suggest how to identify central elements and clusters as well as points for intervention within the overall network, but also within and in-between clusters of practices. Based on this, our work critically discusses how an understanding of practices as a network could improve practice-based research and design.

In 1991 the researchers at the center for the Learning Sciences of Carnegie Mellon University were confronted with the confusing question of “where is AI” from the users, who were interacting with AI but did not realize it. Three decades of research and we are still facing the same issue with the AItechnology users. In the lack of users’ awareness and mutual understanding of AI-enabled systems between designers and users, informal theories of the users about how a system works (“Folk theories”) become inevitable but can lead to misconceptions and ineffective interactions. To shape appropriate mental models of AI-based systems, explainable AI has been suggested by AI practitioners. However, a profound understanding of the current users’ perception of AI is still missing. In this study, we introduce the term “Perceived AI” as “AI defined from the perspective of its users”. We then present our preliminary results from deep-interviews with 50 AItechnology users, which provide a framework for our future research approach towards a better understanding of PAI and users’ folk theories.