Responsibility Gap in Novel Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired People

<p>The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to its increased integration into domains involving physical agency. While traditional AI applications maintain a clear division of responsibility with the decision-action loop being fully controlled by the human user (e.g., AI-assisted medical diagnosis) or the AI-based system (e.g., autonomous driving), novel assistive technologies disrupt this boundary. Here, we examine the responsibility gap in the case of HANS (Human-AI Navigation System), a system designed to assist visually impaired users in grasping. HANS splits the perception-action loop across the system boundary, with the AI making continuous spatial decisions and guiding the user via tactile vibrations, and the user executing the physical movement. The collaborative tandem enhances the capability of each agent and restores autonomy of the visually impaired user at the cost of a blurred responsibility boundary.</p>