AI BriefingApple Research Explores Ontological Boundaries in User-Authored Personal Sensing Systems
Key point
The study identifies four key sites where users negotiate ontological boundaries when defining their own phenomena for machine learning training.
Details
Designed artifacts shape and limit what becomes possible or imaginable, a concept known as ontological foreclosure. To mitigate this, researchers explore giving people power over system design and construction. While prior scholarship focused on usability and technical feasibility, this work examines the unexamined questions of ontological boundary negotiation.
The researchers designed two open-ended probes using a Wizard of Oz technique. These probes allowed participants to experience training a personalized machine learning system on phenomena they defined themselves. In a week-long exploratory study, participants used one of the two probes in their everyday lives.
The study identified four specific sites where ontological boundaries were negotiated:
- The boundaries of a phenomenon
- The subject as part of relations
- What constitutes signal versus noise
- The objectivity of data
The authors offer starting points for supporting boundary negotiation through design. They also discuss open-ended probes as a method for ontological design. The paper was accepted at the AI4TCI Workshop at the International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security (ARES) 2026.
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