Artificial Intelligence or Intelligence Augmentation. What’s in a name?

Artificial Intelligence or Intelligence Augmentation. What’s in a name?

Even as we try to wrap our heads around the idea of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, and understand its impact on our lives, our businesses and jobs, some experts suggest we may be barking up the wrong tree. The answers to our questions, they believe, may lie in a concept called Intelligence Augmentation, or IA.

One of these experts, Murali Doraiswamy, a professor at Duke University, US, wrote in an opinion piece for the World Economic Forum in January that IA uses machine-learning technologies that are similar to AI, but instead of replacing humans, IA seeks to assist them.

This characteristic, insists Prof. Doraiswamy, may ensure that IA will make more “progress and headlines” than AI. He adds that combining machine learning with the existing power of the human brain can help us get the best of both worlds.

He has a point. On 27 June 2016, the science and technology policy office of the White House requested information on how to utilize AI for the public good. While AI technologies offer “great promise for creating new and innovative products, growing the economy, and advancing national priorities in areas such as education, mental and physical health, addressing climate change, and more...”, the White House said, they simultaneously carry “risks and present complex policy challenges”.

International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), in its response, argued that it was guided by the term “augmented intelligence” rather than “artificial intelligence”.

IBM calls this approach “cognitive computing”, defining it as a comprehensive set of capabilities based on technologies such as machine learning, reasoning and decision technologies; language, speech and vision technologies; human-interface technologies; distributed and high-performance computing; and new computing architectures and devices. When purposefully integrated, IBM believes that these capabilities are designed to solve a wide range of practical problems, boost productivity and foster new discoveries across many industries.

Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, insists that cognitive computing is “much more” than AI. This is not a distinction that most of us would notice or even care about. IBM understands AI very well, having developed Watson, the supercomputing system that beat champions of the TV quiz show Jeopardy! in 2011.

Rometty insists that while machine learning is good for deciphering patterns, cognitive computing is more comprehensive because it can “reason” over all structured and unstructured data and deal with “grey areas” to help make judgements and decisions.

Consider the example of a data-driven, machine-learning algorithm that can sift through a patient’s medical data and predict an illness. Deep learning that uses Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) to simulate the human brain can be used to map inputs to predictions.

Share it:
Share it:

[Social9_Share class=”s9-widget-wrapper”]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You Might Be Interested In

Why Image Analytics Holds the Key to Better Big Data Analysis

14 Mar, 2016

In the 2012 Hollywood movie “Act of Valor”, US Navy Seals launch a Raven UAV to procure live video streaming …

Read more

How Do You Win the Data Science Wars?  You Cheat By Doing The Necessary Pre-work!

24 Nov, 2021

If you can keep your head when all about you      Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,   If …

Read more

Why Culture Is the Greatest Barrier to Data Success

4 Oct, 2020

In order to compete in the new digital economy, businesses must become increasingly data-driven. Few executives would dispute this objective. …

Read more

Do You Want to Share Your Story?

Bring your insights on Data, Visualization, Innovation or Business Agility to our community. Let them learn from your experience.

Get the 3 STEPS

To Drive Analytics Adoption
And manage change

3-steps-to-drive-analytics-adoption

Get Access to Event Discounts

Switch your 7wData account from Subscriber to Event Discount Member by clicking the button below and get access to event discounts. Learn & Grow together with us in a more profitable way!

Get Access to Event Discounts

Create a 7wData account and get access to event discounts. Learn & Grow together with us in a more profitable way!

Don't miss Out!

Stay in touch and receive in depth articles, guides, news & commentary of all things data.