Kian L. Lua is a doctoral candidate whose work lies at the intersection of collaborative work, knowledge management, and emerging technologies. Kian’s dissertation research is anchored in computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) knowledge management theory and focuses on newsrooms as sites of artificial intelligence (AI) adoption. He investigates how AI reshapes the dynamics of knowledge sharing and expertise sharing in journalists’ work, and how they navigate the integration of AI tools into their workflows—especially as they grapple with social-technical challenges, tensions around professional values, knowledge and skill preservation, and the boundaries between human judgment and machine automation.
Through both theoretical and empirical inquiry, Kian’s scholarship aims to reconceptualize how CSCW knowledge management theory frames knowledge and expertise sharing in the age of AI, while also raising the normative question of which kinds of knowledge and skills ought to remain distinctly human, not fully surrendered to machines. His work will further offer practical implications in guiding the design of AI systems, informing strategies for workplace technology adoption, shaping norms for knowledge redistribution between human and AI, and anticipating the trajectories of journalism and other knowledge-intensive professions beyond the newsroom.
Kian received his Master of Science in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, Master of Arts in Economics from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and Bachelor of Science in Economics and Physics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.