March 04th, 3.20 pm, Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn will give the talk: "About the Challenges and Opportunities of Human-Machine Collaboration" at the workshop "Human-Machine Interactions in digital_cultures" of the Annual Conference of the Research Cluster digitale_kultur "On Humans and Machines" at the FernUniversity of Hagen and the Emmy Noether Research Group (DFG): "The Phenomenon of Interaction in Human-Machine Interaction (MMI)".

You can find the whole shedule of the workshop here.

Abstract

In recent years, the field of data-driven decision support has developed rapidly due to significant advances in the area of machine learning. This development has opened up new opportunities in a variety of social, scientific, and technological fields. However, it is becoming increasingly clear from experience, particularly in the social sphere, that focusing on purely statistical and numerical aspects in data analysis fails to capture social nuances or take ethical criteria into account. A widespread assumption is that data-based software systems can replace people in their decision-making processes. Often, the introduction of software is seen as a “substitution problem.” In a fixed human workflow, specific tasks are replaced by an algorithm, which results in, among other things, less work, fewer errors, and higher accuracy. However, two challenges need to be considered: Technologies are not value-neutral. Delegating formerly manual tasks to software (or vice versa) leads to significant shifts in social practices and responsibilities.

Therefore, in this talk, I advocate an alternative approach when designing software systems. By using participative methods, existing interdependencies of collaborative human-machine activities should be disclosed. The insights gained from these methods can complement quantitative machine learning approaches with qualitative data. Furthermore, the software’s decision model should be transparently communicated and interactively explorable by humans.

Language of the talk: english
Registration: until February 28th, 2021
Contact person: Sarah Kissler