Leading the design & development of systems under meaningful human control
Launch of the centre
The official launch of the CMHC is on 1 October at Mondai | House of AI. More information and registration here!
Why meaningful human control?
When systems have autonomous capabilities, meaningful human control is an issue: these systems may act too fast, or act based on data or processes that are too complex to understand and monitor, making it unclear who is morally responsible in case of errors. This issue is exacerbated when these systems are powered by AI (e.g. machine learning algorithms). More and more decisions previously made by humans are being placed in the hands of artificial systems. The complexity and capabilities of these systems challenge our traditional notions of control and responsibility. This leads to increasing worries about the role and responsibility of relevant humans around these systems. The principle of meaningful human control is all about designing and engineering systems in a way that relevant humans (users, bystanders, designers, organisations, policy makers) have the right amount of knowledge, time, and responsibility to maintain appropriate influence over such systems with autonomous capabilities.
Our mission
The centre for meaningful human control connects academics and practitioners aiming to conceptualise, design, implement, and assess systems under meaningful human control. We strive to be a lighthouse for collaboration among multiple stakeholders, while leveraging interdisciplinary expertise, existing initiatives at TU Delft, and an international network of collaborators at the forefront of research and practice on meaningful human control. We consolidate TU Delft’s unique expertise on meaningful human control, including the AiTech and the NWO project “Meaningful Human Control over Automated Driving Systems”, and expand towards a broad network of collaborators and practitioners.
More on meaningful human control
- Lecture: How can we keep robots under control? By Filippo Santoni de Sio, Universiteit van Nederland
- Interview: Ensuring that humans don’t become a machine's moral crumple zone with David Abbink and Geert-Jan Houben
- Playlist: Past talks from the AiTech Agora seminar series
- Research Handbook on Meaningful Human Control of Artificial Intelligence Systems