Human-Centered Explainable AI (HCXAI): Beyond Opening the Black-Box of AI

ABSTRACT Explainability of AI systems is crucial to hold them accountable because they are increasingly becoming consequential in our lives by powering high-stakes decisions in domains like healthcare and law. When it comes to Explainable AI (XAI), understanding who interacts with the black-box of AI is just as important as “opening” it, if not more. Yet the discourse of XAI has been predominantly centered around the black-box, suffering from deficiencies in meeting user needs and exacerbating issues of algorithmic opacity. To address these issues, researchers have called for human-centered approaches to XAI. In this second CHI workshop on Human-centered XAI (HCXAI), we build on the success of the first installment from CHI 2021 to expand the conversation around XAI. We chart the domain and shape the HCXAI discourse with reflective discussions from diverse stakeholders. The goal of the second installment is to go beyond the black box and examine how human-centered perspectives in XAI can be operationalized at the conceptual, methodological, and technical levels. Encouraging holistic (historical, sociological, and technical) approaches, we put an emphasis on “operationalizing”, aiming to produce actionable frameworks, transferable evaluation methods, concrete design guidelines, and articulate a coordinated research agenda for XAI.