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CMCR Research Talk

Who Counts as the Human in Human-Centered AI?

17 Nov 2026 – 12:30 AM – CVA 1022

Dr. Yixin Zou, Max Planck Institute for Security and Privacy

Human-centered artificial intelligence (HCAI) seeks to shift the focus in AI development from technology to people. But the field rests on a question rarely asked: which human? In my talk, I will trace three strands of my group’s work, each centering a different one. At the individual level, the human is a lay user: we study which interaction paradigms sustain creativity in human–AI collaboration, and how far AI can go in teaching people to recognize scams or supporting victims through recovery. At the institutional level, the human is a professional inside an organization. Anti-fraud analysts delegate evidence gathering and summarization to AI but keep approve-or-block decisions for themselves, reconciling personal judgment with organizational compliance. At the societal level, the human is a member of the public: we document systematic misalignment between how the public perceives AI risk and how the EU AI Act regulates it, while finding that few people, experts included, calibrate that risk well. Across these cases, different humans want something different from AI. Whose needs and narratives should count in AI design and governance, and how do we navigate these tensions as we move toward agentic AI?

Register here:https://lnkd.in/gYzQAHXz

 

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