SAB member professor Nikol Rummel: “We need to think how to ensure that AI serves humans in a way that empowers us and increases our freedom”

Nikol Rummel is professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany. She is currently on secondment at CAIS, where she heads the Educational Technologies and Artificial Intelligence research program. She is also an Associate Professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, USA. Rummel is a member of international Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) of Hybrid Intelligence programme at the University of Oulu. During her visit to Oulu, we interviewed her about her views on hybrid intelligence.
Porstrait of Professor Nikol Rummel outside in the springtime

When asked to define hybrid intelligence, professor Nikol Rummel gave this explanation:

"Intelligent behavior or actions that combine the capabilities of humans and AI in a way that plays to both strengths and thus allows for AI to extend and augment human intelligence"

Rummel shared her thoughts on the most interesting, key questions around hybrid intelligence:

"In which way can humans and AI best share agency and achieve optimal co-orchestration in different situations? "

She also highlighted the importance of understanding how humans can help AI learn to better augment human capabilities. Additionally, she emphasized the need to leverage the richness of multimodal data available in digital environments to optimally train AI while retaining data privacy and adhering to ethical use of this data.

“What do we need to do to ensure that AI serves humans in a way that empowers us and increases our freedom, rather than constraining or impoverishing humans and decreasing our freedom?,” she continues.

Rummel sees a possibility to address societal challenges of AI and HI with the research conducted by the Hybrid Intelligence research group

Looking ahead, Rummel expresss her hopes for the Hybrid Intelligence programme:

"I hope the Hybrid Intelligence programme will conduct excellent, cutting-edge interdisciplinary research and thus be able to address the questions I raised above. I also hope that the findings and outcomes of the program will serve to address societal challenges that the increasing possibilities of AI and resulting hybrid intelligence applications raise.”

Reflecting on her visit to Oulu and the research programme, Rummel says she very much appreciates the insights into the work of the Hybrid Intelligence programme that they were able to gain during our SAB visit.

“We had many inspiring discussions with the programme members and I hope that the suggestions we provided will aid the programme in continuing its interesting and highly successful path towards achieving its high stakes aims".

Last updated: 10.1.2025