What are the consequences of the design decisions made by today’s artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists, who, with ever greater ease, can choose between extending and replacing the “human in the loop” in the systems and products they create? By the same token, what are the social consequences of building intelligent systems that substitute for or interact with humans in business, entertainment, and day-to-day activities?

Two distinct technical communities with separate traditions, values, and priorities have emerged in the computing world. One, artificial intelligence, has relentlessly pressed ahead toward the goal of automating the human experience. The other, the field of human-computer interaction, or HCI, has been more concerned with the evolution of the idea of “man-machine symbiosis.”