A Situation Awareness Perspective on Human-AI Interaction: Tensions and Opportunities

Abstract

With the emergent focus on human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI), research is required to understand the humanistic aspects of AI design, identify the mechanisms through which user concerns may be alleviated, thereby positively influencing AI adoption. To fill this void, we introduce “Situation Awareness” (SA) as a conceptual framework for considering human-AI interaction (HAII). We argue that SA is an appropriate and valuable theoretical lens through which to decompose and view HAII as hierarchical layers that allow for closer inquiry and discovery. Furthermore, we illustrate why the SA perspective is particularly relevant to the current need to understand HCAI by identifying three tensions inherent in AI design and explaining how an SA-oriented approach may help alleviate these tensions. We posit that users’ enactment of SA will mitigate some negative impacts of AI systems on user experience, improve human agency during AI system use, and promote more efficient and effective in-situ decision-making.