Needs-aware Artificial Intelligence: AI that 'serves [human] needs'

TL;DR

This paper explores the concept of needs in AI, emphasizing how understanding and integrating human needs can shape the future development of AI systems across technical, psychological, ethical, and conceptual boundaries.

Contribution

It introduces the idea of needs-aware AI, highlighting the importance of needs in expanding AI capabilities and addressing current limitations.

Findings

Needs influence AI boundary definitions

Needs-aware AI can improve human-AI trust

Addressing needs can guide ethical AI development

Abstract

By defining the current limits (and thereby the frontiers), many boundaries are shaping, and will continue to shape, the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI). We push on these boundaries in order to make further progress into what were yesterday's frontiers. They are both pliable and resilient - always creating new boundaries of what AI can (or should) achieve. Among these are technical boundaries (such as processing capacity), psychological boundaries (such as human trust in AI systems), ethical boundaries (such as with AI weapons), and conceptual boundaries (such as the AI people can imagine). It is within this final category while it can play a fundamental role in all other boundaries} that we find the construct of needs and the limitations that our current concept of need places on the future AI.