Administrative Information
| Title | Understanding Psychological Challenges in AI Work |
| Duration | 60 min |
| Module | C |
| Lesson Type | Interactive Session |
| Focus | Practical - Socially Responsible AI |
| Topic | Corporate Social Responsibility (ISO 26000) When Using HCAI Systems |
Keywords
Psychology, Human-AI Interaction, Psychological Challenges, Insecurity, Emotional Attachment to AI, Burnout Prevention, Fear, Social Isolation, Cognitive Overload, Cognitive Fatigue,
Learning Goals
- Recognize and articulate the psychological problems that may arise when working with AI technologies, understanding the unique stressors and pressures associated with the field.
- Analyze the fear of skill obsolescence in the fast-paced AI domain and gain insight into the emotional impact of job insecurity.
- Discuss the importance of addressing algorithmic bias and promoting fairness in AI systems, discussing the potential psychological implications of biased technologies.
- Examine the psychological phenomenon of emotional attachment to AI systems, evaluating its implications for human-AI interaction.
- Identify burnout risk factors in AI work and explore strategies to prevent and address burnout to maintain mental well-being.
- Recognize the psychological challenge of imposter syndrome in the AI field and discuss ways to build self-confidence and combat feelings of inadequacy. Examine the risk for social isolation.
- Understand the phenomenon of decision fatigue in AI development and explore strategies for effective decision-making and managing cognitive load.
Expected Preparation
Learning Events to be Completed Before
Obligatory for Students
- Lecture: Overview of Ethical, Professional and legal Aspects of HCAI applications
- Lecture: EU Human Rights Legislation
- Lecture: Positive and Negative Externalities
- Interactive session: How AI affects human behaviour (eg mobility) - Positive and Negative
Optional for Students
- Why We Have an Emotional Connection to Robots - a TED Talk by Kate Darling
References and background for students
Recommended for Teachers
- Deshpande, Ameet & Rajpurohit, Tanmay & Narasimhan, Karthik & Kalyan, Ashwin. (2023). Anthropomorphization of AI: Opportunities and Risks
- Hoffman, Robert & Miller, Timothy & Klein, Gary & Mueller, Shane & Clancey, William. (2023). Increasing the Value of XAI for Users: A Psychological Perspective. KI - Künstliche Intelligenz
Lesson materials
None.
Instructions for Teachers
The materials provided, as well as the overall outline and schedule of the interactive session, are indicative and presented in order to better guide a discussion with the students. As long as the learning goals are met, the guest lecturers and the facilitators/moderators of the interactive session are encouraged to follow the natural flow of the discussion.
Outline
| Duration | Topic | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 5 mins | Introduction | Introduction of the lecturer and the topic of psychological challenges when working with AI. Provide an overview of the lesson plan and learning goals. |
| 20 mins | Examples of Relevant Psychological Challenges | Explore common psychological challenges of exceptional relevance to AI professionals. Those may include job insecurity, attachment, and the psychological implications of experiencing ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Engage students in a discussion on those, probing their knowledge on what those challenges entail and filling in the gaps. It is important to include burnout, social isolation, impostor syndrome and decision fatigue. Two controversial psychological challenges could also be included, namely the psychological stress resulting from the emotional fatigue related to safeguarding sensitive information, as well as the overreliance on AI and when AI dependence bleeds into other areas of life. |
| 20 mins | Recognizing the Symptoms and Prevention | Discuss what are the common symptoms of the psychological challenges discussed above. Do not encourage students to share personal experiences, unless they take the initiative to discuss them. If personal experiences are shared it is important to listen compassionately, not to interrupt and follow up with questions on what strategies is the student employing to stay on top of these challenges. It would be best to prepare additional slides with resources and local contacts that the students can use to seek additional support. |
| 10 mins | Discussion | Final Discussion with Students. Questions and Answers. |
| 5 mins | Closing Remarks | Summarize the key points discussed throughout this interactive session. |
Guest lecturers create their own presentations and materials, using the templates provided by the HCAIM consortium. Specifically, for presentations, they use the following template.
Acknowledgements
The Human-Centered AI Masters programme was Co-Financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union Under Grant №CEF-TC-2020-1 Digital Skills 2020-EU-IA-0068.
Lesson plan on SURF
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