Understanding-First AI Engineering: Purposes, Reference Architecture, and Architectural Patterns for Human Understanding

arXiv:2611.13022v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: AI systems can produce reliable results without developing human understanding. However, human understanding remains valuable for shaping subsequent AI-supported work, forming preferences, governing collective choices and satisfying curiosity, even when human participation is unnecessary for correcting errors. We propose understanding-first AI engineering, which treats purpose-specific human understanding as a first-class design principle guiding requirements, design and operation. The purposes of understanding are organised into four complementary rationales: reflective agency, effective action, collective governance and epistemic value.