Cooperative AI for the future of work – KompAKI

Artificial intelligence will change the working world of tomorrow like no other technology. For the work of the future, this fact gives rise to the following central question: How should this human-machine interaction in learning systems be designed in order to achieve optimal, human-centric value creation?

The “Competence Center for Work and Artificial Intelligence in the Rhine-Main Area” (Kompetenzzentrum für Arbeit und künstliche Intelligenz im Rhein-Main-Gebiet – KompAKI), which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 10.75 million euros and which started on October 1, 2020, is therefore researching new potential for human-centered AI applications and their business models. The knowledge gained will be validated in pilot projects with partner companies mainly from the production sector. All project results will be made available to the regional working world and university education through various information and transfer formats during the project period.

The AI&ML Lab of Prof. Kristian Kersting and the Data Management Lab of Prof. Carsten Binnig from the Department of Computer Science as well as the Cognitive Science Center are involved in central issues within the joint project. The core of their work is to develop a new form of AI, the “cooperative artificial intelligence”. The main characteristics of the cooperative AI should be that it should not only be possible for employees without knowledge in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) to train learning systems (“Automated AI”) but also that learning systems can explain themselves (“Explainable AI”) but also adapt to humans through interaction with the employee (“Interactive AI”). In this way it is possible that depending on the activity and the profile of an employee, learning systems can be dynamically created, which not only support the individual employee optimally in his activity, but that through cooperative AI the trust of the people in the AI and thus the acceptance of the AI in companies is strengthened.

Funding

The joint project “Competence Center for Work and Artificial Intelligence in the Rhine-Main Area” is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for five years. The competence center includes a total of 11 research partners from Technical University (TU) of Darmstadt and Hochschule Darmstadt – University of Applied Sciences as well as eight companies, the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and other associated partners.