Beyond Procedural Compliance: Human Oversight as a Dimension of Well-being Efficacy in AI Governance
This work addresses the gap in AI ethics guidelines for defining human oversight as a developable capacity, which is incremental in providing a theoretical foundation for practical implementation.
The paper tackles the problem of defining effective human oversight in AI governance by introducing it as a well-being capacity within the Well-being Efficacy framework, arguing that sustainable development of this capacity requires integration into education at all levels.
Major AI ethics guidelines and laws, including the EU AI Act, call for effective human oversight, but do not define it as a distinct and developable capacity. This paper introduces human oversight as a well-being capacity, situated within the emerging Well-being Efficacy framework. The concept integrates AI literacy, ethical discernment, and awareness of human needs, acknowledging that some needs may be conflicting or harmful. Because people inevitably project desires, fears, and interests into AI systems, oversight requires the competence to examine and, when necessary, restrain problematic demands. The authors argue that the sustainable and cost-effective development of this capacity depends on its integration into education at every level, from professional training to lifelong learning. The frame of human oversight as a well-being capacity provides a practical path from high-level regulatory goals to the continuous cultivation of human agency and responsibility essential for safe and ethical AI. The paper establishes a theoretical foundation for future research on the pedagogical implementation and empirical validation of well-being effectiveness in multiple contexts.