Why 'Seamless' AI is a Design Failure: The Judgment Transparency Principle (JTP)
Source: Dev.to
The “Seamless” Problem
As AI becomes more integrated, we’re obsessed with making it “seamless.” But is total seamlessness always a good thing? When AI hides the boundary between human intent and machine inference, it creates a “Silent Delegation” trap. We lose the ability to see where our agency ends and the AI begins.
A New Design Philosophy: JTP
I propose a new standard for AI interaction: the Judgment Transparency Principle (JTP). Instead of hiding the “seams,” we should make the delegation of judgment perceivable.
Core rule: Any delegation of judgment to an AI must be perceivable by the user.
Concept Case: The Ghost Interface 👻
To illustrate JTP, I’ve developed the concept of the Ghost Interface—think of it as “hitbox debugging” for human agency. In 3D game development, hitboxes reveal the logical boundary of an otherwise invisible object. I propose applying this same logic to “Semantic Topology” in AI UX.
Visualizing the Boundary
- (a) Spatial Topology (3D Debug) vs (b) Semantic Topology (Ghost Interface)
A Ghost Interface renders a translucent “ghost” of the user’s original intent directly beneath the AI’s inference. It gives the user an immediate, non‑verbal sense of how much the AI has altered their intent—the “divergence” of judgment.
Resources
- GitHub: daiki-kadowaki/judgment-transparency-principle
- Full Concept Paper (under review at SSRN, Abstract ID: 5944516): JTP Paper – Google Drive
- Connect on X (Twitter): https://x.com/dk_jtp?s=21