User Interface Goals, AI Opportunities

This is an opinion piece about the relationship between the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and artificial intelligence (AI). The ultimate goal of both fields is to make user interfaces more effective and easier for people to use. But historically, researchers have disagreed about whether "intelligence" or "direct manipulation" is the better route to achieving this. There is an unjustified perception in HCI that AI is unreliable. There is an unjustified perception in AI that interfaces are merely cosmetic.