title: Cognitio Emergens: Agency, Dimensions, and Dynamics in Human-AI
    Knowledge Co-Creation
summary: Scientific knowledge creation is fundamentally transforming as humans and AI
  systems evolve beyond tool-user relationships into co-evolutionary epistemic
  partnerships. When AlphaFold revolutionized protein structure prediction,
  researchers described engaging with an epistemic partner that reshaped how they
  conceptualized fundamental relationships. This article introduces Cognitio
  Emergens (CE), a framework addressing critical limitations in existing models
  that focus on static roles or narrow metrics while failing to capture how
  scientific understanding emerges through recursive human-AI interaction over
  time. CE integrates three components addressing these limitations: Agency
  Configurations describing how authority distributes between humans and AI
  (Directed, Contributory, Partnership), with partnerships dynamically
  oscillating between configurations rather than following linear progression;
  Epistemic Dimensions capturing six specific capabilities emerging through
  collaboration across Discovery, Integration, and Projection axes, creating
  distinctive "capability signatures" that guide development; and Partnership
  Dynamics identifying forces shaping how these relationships evolve,
  particularly the risk of epistemic alienation where researchers lose
  interpretive control over knowledge they formally endorse. Drawing from
  autopoiesis theory, social systems theory, and organizational modularity, CE
  reveals how knowledge co-creation emerges through continuous negotiation of
  roles, values, and organizational structures. By reconceptualizing human-AI
  scientific collaboration as fundamentally co-evolutionary, CE offers a balanced
  perspective that neither uncritically celebrates nor unnecessarily fears AI's
  evolving role, instead providing conceptual tools for cultivating partnerships
  that maintain meaningful human participation while enabling transformative
  scientific breakthroughs.
paper_authors._id: 681c08ca822d05bba73a8e0b
paper_authors.name: Xule Lin
paper_authors.status: claimed_verified
paper_authors.statusLastChangedAt: 2025-05-08T08:59:05.089Z
paper_authors._id: 64f733a9ffdc2d790432e317
paper_authors.avatarUrl: /avatars/35792659acd945c978594dc50e5322f0.svg
paper_authors.fullname: Xule Lin
paper_authors.type: user
paper_authors.user: linxule
paper_title: Cognitio Emergens: Agency, Dimensions, and Dynamics in Human-AI
    Knowledge Co-Creation
paper_summary: Scientific knowledge creation is fundamentally transforming as humans and AI
  systems evolve beyond tool-user relationships into co-evolutionary epistemic
  partnerships. When AlphaFold revolutionized protein structure prediction,
  researchers described engaging with an epistemic partner that reshaped how they
  conceptualized fundamental relationships. This article introduces Cognitio
  Emergens (CE), a framework addressing critical limitations in existing models
  that focus on static roles or narrow metrics while failing to capture how
  scientific understanding emerges through recursive human-AI interaction over
  time. CE integrates three components addressing these limitations: Agency
  Configurations describing how authority distributes between humans and AI
  (Directed, Contributory, Partnership), with partnerships dynamically
  oscillating between configurations rather than following linear progression;
  Epistemic Dimensions capturing six specific capabilities emerging through
  collaboration across Discovery, Integration, and Projection axes, creating
  distinctive "capability signatures" that guide development; and Partnership
  Dynamics identifying forces shaping how these relationships evolve,
  particularly the risk of epistemic alienation where researchers lose
  interpretive control over knowledge they formally endorse. Drawing from
  autopoiesis theory, social systems theory, and organizational modularity, CE
  reveals how knowledge co-creation emerges through continuous negotiation of
  roles, values, and organizational structures. By reconceptualizing human-AI
  scientific collaboration as fundamentally co-evolutionary, CE offers a balanced
  perspective that neither uncritically celebrates nor unnecessarily fears AI's
  evolving role, instead providing conceptual tools for cultivating partnerships
  that maintain meaningful human participation while enabling transformative
  scientific breakthroughs.