Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast in Australia will investigate how to build the best human-artificial intelligence (AI) teams. A team led by Professor Paul Salmon will look into how humans and artificial intelligence can work together in multiple industries including transport, defence, healthcare, manufacturing, and disaster response. This collaboration between humans and AI is also known as human-agent teaming or human autonomy teaming.
The university mentioned that artificial intelligence and humans do not yet have an ideal working relationship, but the funding received from the Commonwealth government’s Australian Research Council (ARC) will help researchers find a solution. Professor Salmon pointed out that AI is often not designed in a way that allows humans to work well with it, and it can be a problematic team member that increases the likelihood of teamwork failures. He gave the example of autonomous vehicles where the advanced AI does not effectively communicate what it sees and the necessary actions to its human teammate, indicating a lack of team situational awareness and communication.
The University highlighted that AI is rapidly being adopted globally in various industries such as healthcare, aviation, defence, transport, and disaster response. However, AI is complex and often not designed to work in teams or with consideration for human interaction. Therefore, the researchers aim to gain a basic understanding of what teamwork looks like when humans and AI work together. They will apply systems analysis and computational modeling methods to develop a new model of teamwork in human-AI teams, clarifying processes, behaviors, and performance measures to optimize their functioning.
The outcomes of this research could have significant impacts on industries such as defence, transport, healthcare, manufacturing, and disaster response. The University of the Sunshine Coast received a funding grant of $603,955 (US$383,000) from the ARC for this project. This initiative is part of the ARC’s latest round of Discovery Project funding, which supports multiple research projects. The University of Southern Queensland expressed its delight in being at the forefront of globally important research in these areas.