03 Controllable Autonomy & Agency
When should an intelligent system act by itself, and when should it surrender agency?
Area 03: Controllable Autonomy & Agency
Master Question
When should an intelligent system act by itself, and when should it surrender agency?
What We Want to Discover
Full autonomy is not always desirable, and full human control is not always practical. This area studies when authority should shift between an autonomous system and a human, what triggers that shift, and how the system should recognize the situations in which acting alone is the wrong choice.
Why It Matters
Systems that cannot yield control when they should are dangerous. Systems that always ask for control are useless. Between those extremes sits a design problem that affects every fielded autonomous system, from a warehouse robot to an aircraft.
Core Concepts
- Adjustable autonomy and sliding autonomy
- Human in the loop and human on the loop control
- Mixed initiative interaction
- Trust calibration
- Authority transfer protocols
Relevant Disciplines
- Human factors
- Aviation and human supervisory control
- Organizational theory
- Decision theory
Potential Mimicry Sources
- Delegation in human teams
- Apprentice to expert transitions
- Air traffic control handoffs
Projects
No projects yet.
Active Questions
No projects yet, so there are no active derived questions to report.
Key Findings Across Projects
Pending. No projects in this area have produced findings yet.
Unresolved Questions
Pending.
Connections to Other Areas
Pending. Connections will be identified as projects in this area develop.