We explore how AI-systems can effectively assist human reasoning processes by building and evaluating combined human+AI information processing and decision making systems.
Increasingly, seminal decisions affecting personal and societal futures are made by people assisted by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. While the focus in the research community has been on how to make AI systems more accurate, less biased, and able to provide explanations, what ultimately matters is how the combined human+AI system performs and whether the decisions of that combined system are fair, accurate, and efficient.
Insufficient attention has been given to the study of the interaction between an AI system and a human and how the way an AI is integrated into human decision making affects the performance of the combined human-AI decision system in the short and long-term. Research by some others and our team show that this question is of seminal importance to the future of humanity. People too readily adopt advice from an AI, even if that AI is malicious or simply wrong. There is also a risk of over-reliance on AI systems over time, with people forgetting relevant skills or expertise themselves.