The Emergence of Human-Centered AI
by The Editors
Welcome to our new publication on Human-Centered AI!
Our aim is to publish articles that summarize state-of-the-art research results, case studies, critical reflections, essays, design fictions, and other formats of intellectually stimulating content within the emerging discipline of Human-Centered AI. Please reach out if you’d like to publish with us!
What is Human-Centered AI?
Human-centered AI (HCAI) is an emerging discipline that aims to create AI systems that amplify and augment rather than displace human abilities. The human-centered approach to AI seeks to redress the limitations of traditional approaches to AI that primarily focus on automation and optimizing algorithmic metrics, by preserving human control and by prioritizing well-being, needs and values of individuals, organizations, and the society at large.
The discipline of human-centered AI seeks to ensure that AI systems meet human needs and lead to positive synergy and performance when augmenting human capabilities with AI. Human-centered AI emphasizes the importance of considering the ethical, social, legal, and societal implications of AI systems. Human-centered AI systems:
- put people in control and operate in a reliable, safe, and trustworthy manner,
- act as supertools that enhance human performance,
- have an understanding of the sociocultural contexts in which they are embedded,
- promote equitable outcomes,
- respect our privacy, and
- include diverse perspectives and voices at every stage of their design, development, evaluation, and deployment.
Research in HCAI intersects with multiple disciplines including human-computer interaction, data visualization, computer-supported-collaborative work, design, psychology, economics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
What is this Publication?
This publication serves as an intermediate space for work in human-centered AI. What do we mean by an intermediate space? On one hand, many of us publish our work in academic venues such as CHI, IUI, and NeurIPS. Publications in these spaces typically go through lengthy peer-review cycles, which are important, but may introduce delays in “getting the message out.” On the other hand, many of us also share our work in social media spaces such as Twitter or Mastodon, or in Ben Shneiderman’s newsletters. These spaces work well for short content, but don’t allow for a longer discourse. This publication is intended to serve as a middle ground between these two extremes: a space for publishing thoughtful and detailed articles on hot topics in HCAI, without the lengthy, calendar-bound peer-review process. Here are some examples of what we intend to publish:
- Deep dives on published or pre-print HCAI papers (excluding papers under peer-review)
- Essays, critical reflections, or commentary on hot topics in HCAI, or on HCAI as a whole
- Work that may not be intended for an academic audience or conference publication
- Recaps of workshops or conferences on HCAI topics (e.g. a summary of HCAI research at NeurIPS, CHI, IUI, etc.)
- Design fictions depicting possible HCAI futures
- …and anything else you might think the HCAI community might find intellectually stimulating!
Governance
This publication is governed by a Board of Editors who are responsible for curating, reviewing, and approving all content. The Board of Editors is comprised of human-centered AI researchers with positions spanning academia and industry.
We are the Editors:
- Justin Weisz, IBM Research
- Anind Dey, University of Washington
- Q. Vera Liao, Microsoft Research
- Chenhao Tan, University of Chicago
- Vivian Lai, Visa Research
- Michael Bernstein, Stanford University
- Upol Ehsan, Georgia Tech
- Werner Geyer, IBM Research
What’s Next
There are a few upcoming HCAI workshops to watch out for, and we plan to publish summaries of these events in the coming months.
- March 27, 2023 — The 4th Workshop on Human-AI Co-Creation with Generative Models at IUI 2023
- April 28–29, 2023 — The Human-Centered Explainable AI Workshop at CHI 2023
- April 28, 2023 — The Generative AI and HCI Workshop at CHI 2023
Learn More & Get Involved
- 💬 Join the Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence Slack Workspace
- ✋ Join the Human-Centered AI Google Group
- 👓 Read Microsoft’s Advancing human-centered AI: Updates on responsible AI research
- 👓 Read IBM’s What is human-centered AI?
Article updated March 8 to add Upol Ehsan as an editor.
