Building Symbiotic AI: Reviewing the AI Act for a Human-Centred, Principle-Based Framework

2025-01-14

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenge of designing human-centered, human-AI symbiotic systems that comply with the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (AIA). Through a systematic literature review (SLR) and qualitative content analysis, we first articulate four foundational design principles for “Symbiotic AI”—a novel paradigm explicitly aligned with AIA requirements—and establish a structured mapping between these principles and specific regulatory obligations. The framework explicates persistent tensions between current AI development practices and compliance imperatives, while offering an actionable, interdisciplinary guide for the design, evaluation, and deployment of human-centric AI. Our primary contribution is the first principled design framework that simultaneously advances human augmentation objectives and satisfies legal compliance criteria—thereby bridging a critical gap between human-centered AI theory and regulatory implementation.

Technology Category

• Philosophy and Ethics of AI: AI & Law, Justice, Regulation & Governance
• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Simulating Human Behavior

Application Category

• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Fairness and ethical considerations in crowd work and in human-in-the-loop AI systems
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• Semantics and Knowledge: Data modeling to support human-machine intelligence, including LLMs agents, intelligent system behavior, explanations, and user-friendly interactions

Abstract

Artificial Intelligence (AI) spreads quickly as new technologies and services take over modern society. The need to regulate AI design, development, and use is strictly necessary to avoid unethical and potentially dangerous consequences to humans. The European Union (EU) has released a new legal framework, the AI Act, to regulate AI by undertaking a risk-based approach to safeguard humans during interaction. At the same time, researchers offer a new perspective on AI systems, commonly known as Human-Centred AI (HCAI), highlighting the need for a human-centred approach to their design. In this context, Symbiotic AI (a subtype of HCAI) promises to enhance human capabilities through a deeper and continuous collaboration between human intelligence and AI. This article presents the results of a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) that aims to identify principles that characterise the design and development of Symbiotic AI systems while considering humans as the core of the process. Through content analysis, four principles emerged from the review that must be applied to create Human-Centred AI systems that can establish a symbiotic relationship with humans. In addition, current trends and challenges were defined to indicate open questions that may guide future research for the development of SAI systems that comply with the AI Act.

Problem

• Human-AI Coexistence
• Ethical AI Design
• Human-Centered AI

Innovation

• Human-Centric AI
• Symbiotic AI
• EU AI Act Compliance