An independent space for thought & practice
More possibility.
More human.
Artificial intelligence in service of human agency.
Helping people communicate, create, understand, and act. Exploring what becomes possible when technology strengthens our capacity to shape our own lives.
Explore the projects ↗Start with the question ↓
Possibility needs a human direction.Research. Creativity. Human connection.By Marco Barbesta
01 / The question
AI can do more and more.
But what must remain human?
Our judgment. Our voice. Our freedom to choose. The relationships that give our lives meaning. Human Agency AI begins here: with the person and the possibilities that technology can help restore, extend, or open.
Human agency means being able to understand what is happening, express what matters, and influence what happens next. It is the thread connecting a conversation, a creative work, and a consequential decision.
02 / Ideas in practice
Different projects.
One human thread.
From assisted communication to a simulated cockpit, from everyday conversation to creative exploration: different settings for the same question. Does AI help the person remain an active participant?
Simulation · Judgment · Human control
X-Plane 12 with AI
& Project Trident
When an AI can act, who holds the controls?
The simulated cockpit gives human–AI collaboration a demanding setting: complexity, uncertainty, changing conditions, and decisions that need to be understood. It is the originating model for Trident’s exploration of the boundary between AI support and AI intervention.
The question reaches well beyond aviation. A person needs to understand a recommendation, challenge an intervention, and recover when the system is wrong. An approval button alone does not make control meaningful.
From the cockpit to a testable question +
Trident’s current capstone direction focuses on one consequential transition: AI recommendation to AI intervention. A smaller, controlled task can investigate that boundary without requiring a complete cockpit implementation.
Testing both correct and incorrect AI behavior makes it possible to examine error recognition, rejection, reversibility, and recovery. This is a research direction, not a claim of proven operational safety.
The boundary that matters
01AI recommendsCan I understand it?
↓
02AI intervenesCan I challenge it?
↓
03The system is wrongCan I recover control?
Meaningful authority must survive uncertainty and error.
An invitation to imagine.Creativity · Imagination · Authorship
Ten Minutes
Beyond Time
The freedom to imagine is also a form of agency.
Marco’s creative catalog brings another dimension to this work. Ten Minutes Beyond Time belongs in a conversation about what people can imagine, explore, and give form to with AI.
Its connection to Human Agency AI is a question of authorship: how can an exchange with a machine open new possibilities while a person continues to choose the direction, the meaning, and what is worth keeping?
The human contribution is more than the initial prompt. It is the attention, judgment, and personal voice that shape the work.
01Connection
Project Luna
A conversation that leaves room for the person.
Exploring AI as a supportive presence for older adults through conversation, memory, everyday orientation, and relational continuity.
The human connection +
The guiding question is whether that support helps a person stay engaged with their own life and relationships. Care begins with listening to real needs and respecting how much help someone wants.
02Expression
Project Logos
More ways to speak. A voice that remains yours.
Exploring assisted communication for people with motor and communication difficulties, supporting expression with greater continuity, autonomy, and confidence.
The human connection +
Assistance should make room for a person’s meaning and choices. The design question is how to support expression while preserving ownership of what is said, when it is said, and to whom.
03Responsible action
Project Galileo
Useful initiative. Clear human boundaries.
A laboratory for safe agentic systems: AI that can support human action within clear boundaries of consent, control, and verification.
The human connection +
As systems become capable of taking action, permission and verification become practical design questions. What may the system do, what should it explain, and when must the decision return to the person?
These are explorations, prototypes, and evolving projects. Their common purpose is to strengthen the capacity to communicate, choose, understand, create, and participate.
03 / How we work
Start with a person.
Build from there.
A contemporary studio for research, public engagement, and design. Thought and practice belong together: ideas become more useful when they meet the realities of someone’s life.
- 01
Listen before designing.
Begin with real needs, the person’s own priorities, and the context in which help would matter.
- 02
Keep choice meaningful.
Make consent, understanding, and the ability to disagree part of the experience. Keep dignity and control at the center.
- 03
Experiment with care.
Work with small, practical prototypes. Examine what happens when the technology falls short as carefully as when it succeeds.
- 04
Ask what the person gains.
More voice? More confidence? More understanding? More room to act? Those are the outcomes that give the work its purpose.
A conviction running through the work
What matters is not only
what AI can do.
It is what people can still do,
and newly do, with it.
There is a quiet risk in becoming accustomed to systems that speak, choose, and act for us: we may gradually participate less. Human Agency AI explores another direction, one that restores possibility, relationship, voice, and the capacity to act.
04 / The person behind the project
Marco
Barbesta.
AI project developer.
Public speaker. Mentor.
Italy · Europe · United StatesA path through business, education, communications, and social responsibility. A continuing interest in what technology means for people.
Human Agency AI grows out of Marco’s international experience and his dialogue with university faculty, professionals, and organizations engaged in education, care, disability, and responsible innovation. He teaches at the University for Adults and Older Adults in Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Artificial intelligence has value when it helps people communicate more effectively, make more informed choices, preserve autonomy, and participate more fully in social life.”Marco Barbesta
His work connects mentoring and public conversations with practical experiments in assisted communication, support for older adults, safe agentic systems, and creativity.
05 / Ideas worth sharing
A wider
conversation.
AI concerns all of us. Its place in our lives deserves thoughtful discussion, grounded in experience and attentive to the people affected.
Reflections
Short essays, notes, and conversations on language, trust, responsibility, autonomy, care, memory, creativity, and human presence. A place to ask better questions about the consequences of AI in everyday life.
Learning together
Public talks, lectures, seminars, workshops, and AI literacy programs. Exploring what the technology can offer, what deserves scrutiny, and how to approach it with curiosity and judgment.
Collaboration
Dialogue with schools, universities, associations, cultural groups, local communities, and professionals. Exploring small prototypes that begin with real human needs.