The future of HCI in the era of AI

There is significant debate around the future of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) as a field of inquiry and of scholarship in the emerging world of AI. Some say that the field of human-computer interaction has been rendered irrelevant by new kinds of AI systems, such as LLM chatbots, designed to directly interact with people. Many researchers in HCI, however, have shown the ways in which these systems may ignore people's needs, trample on their rights, and demonstrate a very narrow vision of what it means for AI to be human-centered. For that reason, we gather some of the most important voices in the field to discuss the future of HCI in this new era of AI. The attendees come from HCI fields as diverse as learning technologies, XR (virtual and enhanced reality), accessibility and health, multimodal technologies, body-centered devices, mobile devices, human-robot interaction, and search and information retrieval. Participants are preparing to debate what aspects of HCI deserve investment of time and other resources, to contribute and shape new AI initiatives, and what HCI education must look like in order to support the next generation of scholars and contributors in the area of HCI+AI and AI+HCI. The outcomes of the symposium will include a clearer idea of what it means to do HCI in the era of powerful and ubiquitous AI, and a white paper outlining grand challenges in HCI+AI.

Venue: New lecture hall, Building 1B