Towards Adaptive AI Explanations with Tangible User Interfaces

AI systems are increasingly integrated into people’s daily life, yet their widespread adoption may be hindered by the opaque nature of their functionality. XAI seeks to demystify AI decisions for users, thereby building trust. While existing XAI research has largely been focusing on digital interfaces offering numerical, textual, or visual explanations, the growing integration of AI into physical devices calls for tangible interfaces to explain AI’s decisions. To address this, we have introduced a preliminary conceptual framework for Tangible Explainable AI - TangXAI. This approach explores communicating XAI via physical objects, drawing on data physicalization and tangible human-AI interaction. In this workshop paper we will present ways in which tangible AI user interfaces might offer solutions to diverse users and situations by adapting AI’s explanations to suit the user needs and contexts. This approach may increase AI users’ curiosity and engagement, and advance the acceptance of future AI systems.