Human-AI co-evolution and strengthening human capabilities

For the past two decades, digitalisation has accelerated, and innovative technologies have become embedded in our everyday lives. These technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Virtual Reality (VR) are growing in volume while simultaneously shaping different industries and our lives at home, school, and work. Growing digital technologies offer new possibilities in, for example, education, nursing, and climate preservation. However, they lack qualities which are uniquely human - such as the ability for flexible, creative, and ethical thinking.

Building the human-driven, digital future calls for an in-depth understanding of human-machine co-evolutionary processes, and aspects pertaining to the co-creation of technologies. Furthermore, resilience-thinking on individual, organisational, regional, and global levels is needed for adapting to the changes caused by digitalisation.

At the University of Oulu, we examine these themes through the lenses of interdisciplinary research. The two key research programmes, Generation Z and beyond: Strengthening Human Competences in the Emerging Digital Era (GenZ) and Hybrid Intelligence: Human-AI Co-evolution and Learning in Multi-realities (HI) involve researchers from several different faculties and excellence areas within the University of Oulu.