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

Miriana Calvano, Antonio Curci, Giuseppe Desolda, Andrea Esposito, Rosa Lanzilotti, Antonio Piccinno

TL;DR

The paper addresses how to design Symbiotic AI that aligns with the EU AI Act by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) to derive a principled, human-centered framework. It identifies four core design principles—Transparency, Fairness, Automation Level, and Protection—and three supporting properties—Trustworthiness, Robustness, and Sustainability—mapped to regulatory requirements. The work contributes by codifying a concrete framework that guides design and evaluation of Symbiotic AI systems in compliance with regulation, and it discusses current trends, challenges, and gaps in human factors and methodology. The findings have practical significance for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners aiming to operationalize human-centered AI within a risk-based regulatory landscape, enabling safer, more interpretable, and ethically aligned AI deployments.

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.

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

TL;DR

The paper addresses how to design Symbiotic AI that aligns with the EU AI Act by conducting a systematic literature review (SLR) to derive a principled, human-centered framework. It identifies four core design principles—Transparency, Fairness, Automation Level, and Protection—and three supporting properties—Trustworthiness, Robustness, and Sustainability—mapped to regulatory requirements. The work contributes by codifying a concrete framework that guides design and evaluation of Symbiotic AI systems in compliance with regulation, and it discusses current trends, challenges, and gaps in human factors and methodology. The findings have practical significance for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners aiming to operationalize human-centered AI within a risk-based regulatory landscape, enabling safer, more interpretable, and ethically aligned AI deployments.

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.
Paper Structure (47 sections, 5 figures)

This paper contains 47 sections, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methodology
  3. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
  4. Coding and Classification
  5. Conducting the SLR
  6. Results: A Principled Human-Centred AI Framework to Build SAI
  7. Principles for Human-AI Symbiosis
  8. Transparency
  9. Explainability
  10. Interpretability
  11. Fairness
  12. Rightful Information
  13. Non-Discrimination
  14. Automation Level
  15. Human-on-the-loop
  16. ...and 32 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: PRISMA diagram of the literature review
  • Figure 2: Principles for Symbiotic Human-Centred AI and their dimensions
  • Figure 3: The AI Act-compliant framework of principled-based Symbiotic Human-Centred AI
  • Figure 4: Mapping between the different sets of principles provided by the reference guidelines
  • Figure 5: The various identified principles and their relationships. Each node size represents the number of articles classified in each principle (the nodes' labels report the number). The edge size and colour represent the number of articles classified in multiple principles (the edges' labels report the number).