Designing and developing artificial intelligence (AI) systems in a human-centered way requires design strategies that enable decision-makers to prioritize human capabilities, needs and values in AI design processes. The development of corresponding design methods is an objective in the field of Human-centered AI (HCAI), the realization of which requires a goal-oriented operationalization of design theory findings as well as a considered weighting of social, ethical, technical and organizational design factors. The field of Technology Assessment (TA) has a wealth of experience in navigating this multifactorial field of possible tensions and conflicts, which is worth considering for the development of methods in HCAI. The dissertation explores the compatibility of TA with HCAI through closely examining the two design approaches Constructive Technology Assessment (CTA) and Value Sensitive Design (VSD). The central research question of the dissertation project is: What insights can HCAI draw from the CTA and VSD approaches in order to design AI systems in a human-centered way?

To answer this question, the dissertation focuses on the role concepts used in CTA and VSD, as well as the methods that both approaches propose for designing and developing technical systems. Chapter 2 begins with an introduction to the design philosophy of Human-centered Design (HCD), which forms a central starting point for conceptual and methodological considerations in HCAI. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the field of HCAI and presents the ideas for further development of the HCD approach discussed in HCAI, which already address human-technology-relationships of higher degrees of complexity. Chapter 4 then shifts the perspective towards the understanding of technology design in TA and presents central assumptions as well as the proposed design methods of CTA and VSD. The chapter concludes with the resulting, initially mostly abstract implications for the objectives in HCAI. Chapter 5 is then devoted to the role concepts used in CTA and VSD to describe forms of human life and action in design contexts and to operationalize them in design methods. The aim of exploring the meanings, origins and blind spots of these role concepts is to understand which interpretations of human-centeredness come into play in CTA and VSD, and how these translate into the respective design methods of the both approaches. The chapter ends by discussing the resulting conclusions for HCAI. Chapter 6 then turns towards design practice and describes the results of an interview study in which AI experts assess the practicability of the CTA and VSD methods. The central questions of the expert evaluation focus on the extent to which the methods can meet the requirements of AI design processes in practice and to the extent to which they enable decision-makers to make reliable design decisions, as these present central criteria for HCAI methods. The differentiated assessments of the AI experts are presented with the help of a SWOT analysis, the results of which enable the discussion of further conclusions for HCAI and the formulation of recommendations for the further development of the CTA- and VSD-methods. Chapter 7 summarizes what CTA and VSD can (not) provide for HCAI and under what conditions interdisciplinary cooperation between the HCAI and TA communities can be expedient.

The dissertation (in German) is available here: https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/1000180509

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