AI: Human-Machine Collaboration

Some AI-based services and tasks today are relatively trivial – such as a song recommendation on a streaming music platform. However, AI is playing an expanding role in other areas with far greater human impact. Imagine you’re a doctor using AI-enabled sensors to examine a patient, and the system comes up with a diagnosis demanding urgent invasive treatment.

In situations such as this, an AI-driven decision on its own is not enough. We also need to know the reasons and rationale behind it. In other words, the AI has to “explain” itself, by opening up its reasoning to human scrutiny. Explainable AI won’t replace people but will complement and support them so they can make better, faster, more accurate and more consistent decisions.

The future of AI lies in enabling people to collaborate with machines to solve complex problems. Like any efficient collaboration, this requires good communication, trust, and understanding.