HCC17 – Human Choice and Computers Conference
Combined Intelligence: Human–AI Systems in Everyday Contexts
Venue: TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
Time: 7th-9th September 2026
Call for Papers: Download here
Submission second wave: due by 23 March 2026
About HCC
Themes
Dates
Paper Submission – Please submit your contribution here.
Workshops & Tracks
Venue
Registration
Committee
The proceedings of the conference will be published in the IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology (IFIP AICT) series, in accordance with the contract between Springer Nature Switzerland AG and International Federation for Information Processing.
About HCC
Fifty years ago, the first Human Choice and Computers Conference (HCC) was organised, chaired by IFIP’s President Heinz Zemanek, with the proceedings edited by Mumford and Sackman. An overarching theme of that first conference was a concern over the way the participants felt people were being forced to use computers in dehumanizing ways. They argued that sociotechnical problems must be solved in ways that foreground the interests of workers and communities and that, ultimately, human needs must take precedence over technological and economic considerations. Those concerns have never really left us and indeed are close to the theme of the 17th HCC.
In recent months, we have seen the meteoric rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT, ChatSonic, LaMDA, Neeva AI, DragonFly, etc. As we claim to move towards a more human-centric Industry 5.0, these and other technological innovations are challenging many of the existing relationships and choices that exist between humans and computers. The challenges exist at the juncture of human needs on the one hand, and technological and economic considerations on the other. While the technology may have changed, the events of 50 years ago still seem very fresh.
Some scholars and pundits are profoundly negative in their evaluations of AI technologies, suggesting that these tools will upend many aspects of the status quo in any domain where human creativity dominates, notably education, journalism, research, governance, and, of course, crime. Others are quick to see the advantages associated with the new technology and argue that developments and innovations of this kind cannot simply be stopped by fiat. Indeed, although they may have the potential to eliminate creative work, they are themselves the products of creative and fertile imaginations. Unsurprisingly, new tools (themselves premised on AI) that are claimed to detect AI-created materials have also emerged, perhaps initiating a ‘war’ between the two sides. What we can expect is that just as the new technology may solve some problems, it may exacerbate others.
Themes
Since 1974, the Human Choice and Computers (HCC) conference series has consistently fostered innovative thinking about the interfaces between society and technology. As AI technologies become embedded in daily life, the nature of human–machine interaction is evolving from simple tool use to collaborative or combined intelligence. In workplaces, homes, classrooms, healthcare, and bureaucracies, AI systems increasingly co-perform tasks, make recommendations, predict outcomes, and influence human decisions.
Building on HCC16’s concern with the ethics of generative AI, HCC17 shifts the focus to how these technologies are actually experienced and lived with, including the tensions, adaptations, and opportunities that arise when machine logic intersects with human intention. This focus strongly aligns with IFIP TC9’s commitment to exploring human choice, responsibility, and social consequences in computing.
HCC17 in 2026 focuses on “Combined Intelligence: Human–AI Systems in Everyday Contexts” and invites contributions that explore how AI and humans operate together in these real-world contexts, creating new forms of agency, responsibility, and knowledge production. It highlights empirical, critical, and design-led perspectives that make visible how AI systems are implemented, appropriated, negotiated, or resisted in everyday life.
HCC17 welcomes inputs from members of academia and research, civic society, computing associations, industry, and the IT professions on the following (and related) themes:
- Trust, ambiguity, and uncertainty in human–AI interaction: How do users build trust in AI systems they do not fully understand or control?
- Power, delegation, and the politics of automation: Who holds the power when decisions are shared between people and algorithms?
- Designing with (and for) combined intelligence: What are the participatory methods for co-designing human–AI systems in workplaces and public services?
- Tacit knowledge vs. machine learning: What gets lost when experiential or local knowledge is modeled or replaced by AI?
- Shifting boundaries of responsibility in AI-supported work: When something goes wrong, who is accountable? And how do institutions formalize this?
- Everyday AI appropriation and resistance: How do individuals and communities domesticate, subvert, or adapt AI systems to local needs?
- The role of AI in institutional routines and professional practices: How does AI change rhythms, hierarchies, and tacit norms in fields like education, journalism, or administration?
- Emotion, empathy, and social relationality in hybrid systems: Can AI systems participate in emotional labor? What happens when they try?
- Ethics-in-use – Practicing values in human–AI systems: How ethics are enacted, negotiated, or contested through everyday use, not just at the design stage?
- From decision support to decision sharing: How can we rethink the human role when AI takes a more active or persuasive role in workflows?
- Combined intelligence in crisis, error, and breakdown: How do human–AI systems behave under pressure (improvisation, fallback strategies, and repair)?
- Learning together: Human feedback and AI adaptability: How do co-adaptive systems that evolve through use look like (including feedback loops and learning cultures)?
- Combined intelligence and vulnerable populations: How do collaborative AI systems impact people with low digital literacy, disabilities, or precarious social positions?
- Narratives and imaginaries of human–AI teaming: How do media, policy, and design imaginaries shape expectations about collaboration between humans and machines?
- Infrastructures of combined intelligence: What do invisible systems, data flows, and organizational arrangements make human–AI partnerships possible?
- Combined intelligence and Intellectual Property Rights: How does AI aid and hinder us in creating new immaterial constructs? Is it making plagiarism (and what does that even mean) easy? Is it replacing the creators of immaterial constructs altogether, or can it aid us in creating something new, even better than before?
- The effect of combined intelligence in surveillance and privacy: Will everything we are and do be visible to those with the suitable tools, and should it, or should we be able to hold onto our private lives even in times of combined intelligence?
- Impact of combined intelligence on gender dynamics in society: Will AI be used for virtual girlfriends/boyfriends, but does it also infiltrate robotics, and thus change our interests in our partners?
- Benefits of combined intelligence: Is it only for those in the industrialised world, or will it also help those in the developing world?
- Role of combined intelligence to save the world for us: Can we find solutions that secure biodiversity with combined intelligence, or are we doomed to make this planet unlivable for humans and animals?
Important Dates
- January 30, 2026 – Submissions due for first wave
- March 23, 2026 – Submissions due for second wave
- March 31, 2026 – Notification of acceptance/rejection of first wave papers
- April 15, 2026 – Notification of acceptance/rejection of second wave papers
- April 30, 2026 – Submission of camera-ready papers
- July 31, 2026 – Deadline for early bird registration
- September 7 – 9, 2026 – Conference dates
Paper Submission
The conference is open to attendees at all stages of their career and education, whether you are at the start, middle, or peak of your career, either as academics or practitioners. Submitted papers should be approximately 3,000-5,000 words in length. Please return your paper, using the appropriate format, via the following link.
Please ensure that you indicate whether you are submitting to the conference’s general theme or to one of the specific workshops. Papers must be anonymized for blind peer review.
Co-located TC9 Working Group Workshops & Tracks
- IFIP WG9.2 – Social Accountability and Computing (Track)
Human–AI Systems and the Public Interest: Accountability, Ethics, and Empowerment
Track chair: Neil Gordon - IFIP WG9.5 – Our Digital Lives (Workshop)
AI in our Digital Lives: Everyday Encounters with AI and Their Implications
Workshop chairs: Hameed Chughtai, Kathrin Bednar - IFIP WG9.8 – Gender, Diversity, and ICT (Track)
AI through feminist readings
Track chairs: Sisse Finken, Johanna Sefyrin, Marisa D’Mello
Conference Venue: TU Wien, Austria
TU Wien, Favoritenstrasse 9-11, A-1040 Vienna, Austria (On OpenStreetMap, On Google Maps)
