Human-Machine Articulation Work: Functional Dependency Dialogue for Human-Machine Teaming

Articulation work is an overlooked requirement for successful human-machine teams. Articulation work captures the often hidden task management activities human-human teams regularly perform in response to functional dependencies amongst team members. While human-human teams demonstrate articulation work through language, human-machine teams currently do not. Aviation is replete with examples, from the superficially mundane adaptation inherent in the turnaround of commercial aircraft to the life-threatening misunderstanding in Turkish Airlines Flight 1951 and Asiana Flight 214. Current research in human-machine language-mediated interaction has failed to study tasks that are sufficiently complicated to require articulation work, resulting in a misleading optimism about the state of the art. More realistic scenarios in human machine teaming will promote attention to this fundamental limitation and motivate the development of analogous capability.