The European consortium “HumanE-AI-Net” meets only twice a year to share the ongoing work of multiple international researchers, to define the next steps and to review the strategic vision of the project. From 22nd to 24th May, Instituto Superior Técnico was pleased to welcome, at Taguspark campus, about 50 Artificial Intelligence (AI) professionals coming from 53 institutions and from 20 European countries.
The project creates a European network that aims to develop Artificial Intelligence mechanisms that serve humans and enhance their capabilities, instead of replacing them. “The project is important because it addresses a very current and central topic in the discussion of the role of Artificial Intelligence in society. The research brings together experts from various branches of artificial intelligence, experts in human factors and person-machine interaction, and experts in ethics and legislation”, explains Rui Prada, an active participant in the project, professor and researcher at Técnico (INESC-ID, GAIPS Lab).
The work developed at Técnico and INESC-ID within this project relates to the interaction and collaboration of Artificial Intelligence with people, their social capacity and their role in society. It resulted in research works on Socially Aware Interactions (with contributions from Rui Prada and Inês Lobo) and Social Dilemma with information asymmetry (with contributions from Ana Paiva).
“One of the topics addressed [at the meeting] was the impact of the latest Large Language Models (LLM) technology on research in Artificial Intelligence, in areas such as: the ability to perceive the world, the ability to reason, the ability and impact social life, the interaction with people, and the ethical and legal issues. We had several group discussions about the opportunities and challenges that AI faces. The outcomes of this discussion will contribute to the new version of the project agenda”, explains Rui Prada.
Currently, the GAIPS team is developing a collaborative game called “Geometry Friends” that aims to understand how people collaborate with a virtual agent.
