Folk Theories, Recommender Systems, and Human-Centered Explainable Artificial Intelligence (HCXAI)

This study uses folk theories to enhance human-centered “explainable AI” (HCXAI). The complexity and opacity of machine learning has compelled the need for explainability. Consumer services like Amazon, Facebook, TikTok, and Spotify have resulted in machine learning becoming ubiquitous in the everyday lives of the non-expert, lay public. The following research questions inform this study: What are the folk theories of users that explain how a recommender system works? Is there a relationship between the folk theories of users and the principles of HCXAI that would facilitate the development of more transparent and explainable recommender systems? Using the Spotify music recommendation system as an example, 19 Spotify users were surveyed and interviewed to elicit their folk theories of how personalized recommendations work in a machine learning system. Seven folk theories emerged: complies, dialogues, decides, surveils, withholds and conceals, empathizes, and exploits. These folk theories support, challenge, and augment the principles of HCXAI. Taken collectively, the folk theories encourage HCXAI to take a broader view of XAI. The objective of HCXAI is to move towards a more user-centered, less technically focused XAI. The elicited folk theories indicate that this will require adopting principles that include policy implications, consumer protection issues, and concerns about intention and the possibility of manipulation. As a window into the complex user beliefs that inform their iii interactions with Spotify, the folk theories offer insights into how HCXAI systems can more effectively provide machine learning explainability to the non-expert, lay public