WhatsApp and artificial intelligence
Human in the loop
Human in the loop (HITL) is the design of an automated system in which a person takes part in its operation, supervision or decisions. In an AI assistant it means there are things the machine prepares or spots, but that a member of staff decides or confirms.
Also known ashuman-in-the-loop · HITL · human oversight · humano en el bucle
What it is exactly
The expression comes from machine learning and autonomous systems, where three degrees are distinguished. With the human in the loop, the person authorises or starts the action; on the loop, the system acts and the person supervises and can stop it; out of the loop, nobody steps in. In a residence the useful question is which task goes at which degree, and it is best answered before the assistant goes live, not after the first scare.
| Degree | In a residence |
|---|---|
| In the loop | An exception to the house rules, a conduct matter or what a family is told about their son or daughter: a person decides. |
| On the loop | The assistant answers timetable questions and takes fault reports; the staff review it and correct it when something does not add up. |
| Out of the loop | Confirming that a meal cancellation has been recorded before the cut-off time. |
Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 requires high-risk systems to be designed so that natural persons can oversee them effectively (Article 14), and warns about automation bias: the tendency to rely too much on what the machine says. An assistant that serves residents is not among the high-risk systems in Annex III, but the idea still applies: anything that needs a decision goes to a person, which is the handoff to a human.
Sources
Related terms
- AI assistantAn AI assistant is a program that holds a conversation in natural language and, with a language model behind it, understands what it is told even without keywords. In a residence it handles the messaging channel: it answers what is in the house rules, takes requests and passes the rest to a person.
- Handoff to a humanA handoff to a human is passing a conversation from the AI assistant to a member of staff, because the person asks for it or because the matter needs a decision. Done well, it reaches a specific phone with the context and, if nobody answers, moves up to the person in charge.