Society is undergoing a revolution in artificial intelligence (AI), with huge potential benefits, but also major risks for individuals and society.

Increasingly, trust in the development, deployment, and the use of AI and autonomous systems concerns not only the technology’s inherent properties, but also the socio-technical systems of which they are part of, that is, the people, organisations, and societal environments in which systems are developed, implemented, and used. Currently, major challenges include the lack of fundamental theory and models to analyse and ensure that systems are aligned with human values and ethical principles, accountable, open to inspection, and understandable to diverse stakeholders. Furthermore, there is no doubt that this technological shift will have revolutionary effects on human life and society.

The goal of this Dagstuhl Perspectives Workshop is to contribute to shape that revolution, to provide the scientific and technological foundations for designing and deploying AI systems that work in partnership with human beings, to enhance human capabilities rather than replace human intelligence. Fundamentally new solutions are needed for core research problems in AI and human-computer interaction (HCI), especially to help people understand actions recommended or performed by AI systems and to facilitate meaningful interaction between humans and AI systems.

Specific challenges include: learning complex world models; building effective and explainable machine learning systems; developing human-controllable intelligent systems; adapting AI systems to dynamic, open-ended real-world environments (in particular robots and autonomous systems); achieving in-depth understanding of humans and complex social contexts; and enabling self-reflection within AI systems.

Expected results (outcome) of the workshop

• Define a coherent research agenda for this rapidly emerging discipline
• Produce a clear narrative on content and urgency of the discipline to influence policy makers
• Trigger scientific innovation across the whole spectrum from fundamental research to practical applications
• Develop synergies across Europe on this emerging research theme and link with similar international initiatives (e.g. at Stanford and MIT ).

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Virginia Dignum, Wendy E. Mackay, John Shawe-Taylor, and Frank van Harmelen