about
A No Free Lunch Theorem for Human-AI Collaboration [pdf] (arxiv.org)
1 point by bikenaga on Nov 26, 2024 | hide | past | pdf | discuss on HN

In plain words: A fixed rule that mixes a person's and a computer's probability guesses into an answer will sometimes score below the weaker of the two, unless it always follows one of them. So beating both isn't free; the safe pattern is one catching the other's obvious mistakes.

Abstract · A No Free Lunch Theorem for Human-AI Collaboration

The gold standard in human-AI collaboration is complementarity -- when combined performance exceeds both the human and algorithm alone. We investigate this challenge in binary classification settings where the goal is to maximize 0-1 accuracy. Given two or more agents who can make calibrated probabilistic predictions, we show a "No Free Lunch"-style result. Any deterministic collaboration strategy (a function mapping calibrated probabilities into binary classifications) that does not essentially always defer to the same agent will sometimes perform worse than the least accurate agent. In other words, complementarity cannot be achieved "for free." The result does suggest one model of collaboration with guarantees, where one agent identifies "obvious" errors of the other agent. We also use the result to understand the necessary conditions enabling the success of other collaboration techniques, providing guidance to human-AI collaboration.

Kenny Peng, Nikhil Garg, Jon Kleinberg
arXiv:2411.15230 · cs.AI, cs.HC, cs.LG · submitted Nov 21, 2024
abstract · pdf · html

add comment on HN