Human Factors in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Dear Colleagues, 

While the rapid advances in machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) will potentially create new socio-economic opportunities, they also pose fundamental challenges for the human factors and ergonomics discipline and profession worldwide. Consideration and understanding of future collaborations between humans and artificially intelligent systems at work and in everyday life are critical to assuring that future applications of ML and AI will benefit humanity at large. To fully engage the human factors and safety community in meaningful and robust discussion about the future workplaces in the age of AI, an approach focusing on humanity-centered AI is needed. Such an approach was recently defined as cyberergonomics or Ergonomics 2.1 (Karwowski, 2018), which focuses on the understanding of complex interrelationships between humans, intelligent systems, and other artificial cognitive agents in a broad societal context. Such considerations are critical to the development of the built and natural environments, living habitats, and infrastructures on Earth and beyond, focusing on human-centered principles for the design and integration of artificially intelligent systems that benefit humanity.

This Special Issue will focus on human factor considerations in the age of artificial intelligence. The potential implications of the new framework for future workplace design in the context of the fusion of artificial and human intelligence, artificial consciousness, and technological life, will be presented. 

The potential research topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Human factors of artificial intelligence (AI) at work
• Human-centered design of artificial intelligence 
• Human aspects of AI applications at home
• AI and society
• Interrelationships between humans and intelligent systems
• The human use of artificial intelligence
• AI: ethical considerations
• Human aspects of machine learning and employment
• ML/AI and occupational safety
• Explainability and trust in AI
• Design and integration of artificially intelligent systems
• Collaboration with artificial cognitive agents
• Integration of artificially intelligent systems 
• Human aspects of ML/AI applications in business, industry, and trade
• Human factors: a technological life perspective
• Artificial intelligence, consciousness, and life 

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Symmetry is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Human factors of artificial intelligence (AI) at work 
• Human-centered design of artificial intelligence 
• Human aspects of AI applications at home 
• AI and society 
• Interrelationships between humans and intelligent systems 
• The human use of artificial intelligence 
• AI: ethical considerations 
• Human aspects of machine learning and employment 
• ML/AI and occupational safety 
• Explainability and trust in AI 
• Design and integration of artificially intelligent systems 
• Collaboration with artificial cognitive agents 
• Integration of artificially intelligent systems 
• Human aspects of ML/AI applications in business, industry, and trade 
• Human factors: a technological life perspective 
• Artificial intelligence, consciousness, and life