Human-AI Collaboration Vocabulary

a system design where humans review and approve AI decisions

“Human-in-the-loop review catches AI mistakes before they affect customers.”

Origin: human + in the loop (from control systems terminology)

matching AI independence level to task clarity and risk

“High-stakes medical decisions need lower AI autonomy than email drafting.”

Origin: Greek autonomia `self-governance` + Latin calibrare `to determine the caliber of`

progressively improving outputs through cycles of generation and feedback

“Iterative refinement turned the rough draft into a polished article over three rounds.”

Origin: Latin iterare `to repeat` + refinare `to purify`

collaboration where humans verify AI outputs and AI explains its reasoning

“Verification partnership caught the hallucinated statistics before publication.”

Origin: Latin verificare `to make true` + Old French parçonier `partner`

breaking complex problems into smaller subtasks for AI to handle sequentially

“Task decomposition let us verify each step of the analysis independently.”

Origin: Latin de- `down` + componere `to put together`

using the output of one prompt as input to another in sequence

“Prompt chaining: first generate ideas, then evaluate them, then develop the best one.”

Origin: Latin promptus + Old French chaîne from Latin catena `chain`

providing structure and support to guide AI toward better outputs

“Scaffolding with a template improved the consistency of generated reports.”

Origin: Old French eschafaut `scaffold` from Vulgar Latin *catafalicum

transferring work between human and AI phases with clear documentation

“The handoff point included a summary of decisions made and open questions.”

Origin: hand + off, from relay race terminology

a cycle where outputs inform adjustments to improve future outputs

“The feedback loop of user ratings improved response quality over time.”

Origin: Old English fēdan `to nourish` + back + Old English hlyp `leap`

delegating mental tasks to AI to free human cognitive resources

“Cognitive offloading of routine summarization let analysts focus on strategic thinking.”

Origin: Latin cognoscere `to learn` + off + load