Abstract

With the rise in popularity of new applications of artificial intelligence (AI) such as Generative AI and Agentic AI, there is a growing trend to anthropomorphize AI—artificial intelligence in general, AI platforms and applications in particular. A notable example is the notion of “collaboration of human and AI” to perform tasks typically known as knowledge work. In the current literature, a human knowledge worker’s employing AI applications is matter-of-factly referred to as collaboration (e.g., Järvelä et al., 2023; Ngwenyama & Rowe, 2024; Vaccaro et al., 2024) and partnership (e.g., Ferdousi et al., 2026). In these discourses, an acronym HAIC is commonly used to mean “human-AI collaboration”, and an AI application is considered a counterpart in such collaborations (Anthony et al., 2023) and often referred to as the “AI co-worker” (Hornikel et al., 2021). At the risk of being brushed off for taking an issue out of semantics, this paper raises an objection to such a notion, regardless of real or potential benefits to be realized when a human knowledge worker achieves enhanced effectiveness and efficiency thanks to AI systems. Collaboration occurs when two (or more) parties come together to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. The parties involved in a collaborative effort are comparably capable, expressly willing to engage, and in the position of making decisions from the start. Current literature on this topic tends to give unduly more weight to the capabilities of AI applications (as exceeding human’s capability or complementary to it) and human knowledge worker’s willingness to engage (omitting the willingness of AI systems as counterparts). Therefore, the objection launched in this paper may escalate to a larger debate of whether or not artificial intelligence is conscious or sentient. Without the certainty of such escalation, we base our challenge simply on (1) historical debates of the nature of AI, (2) literature surrounding the mechanisms of collaboration, and (3) known misunderstandings of AI volition.

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