The interplay between doctors and AI the case of Norway and China

This chapter examines the adoption of AI in healthcare in China and Norway, chosen for their contrasting governance models. By placing a centralized, innovation-driven Chinese system alongside a decentralized, welfare-oriented Norwegian one, we highlight how similar technologies are framed and negotiated differently under divergent institutional logics. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, including interviews and observations, the chapter explores how medical professionals negotiate AI's role as an assistive tool. Central to this analysis is the contested notion of “ethical AI,” widely invoked in policy and industry yet vague in practice. We approach it ethnographically, as a category mobilized and reinterpreted by professionals in situated contexts. In China, AI is framed as a response to systemic inefficiencies, while in Norway it is linked to equity and patient welfare. These contrasting narratives, and the everyday practices they inform, reveal how the ethical and practical implications of AI are contingent and context-specific.