Artificial Intelligence vs. Augmented Intelligence

I want to share with you the story of how I got to work today.

I submit to you that my drive from my home to my office used 3 forms of intelligence. The first intelligence was human intelligence. The intelligence there was the intelligence that I needed to operate the vehicle, to turn the steering wheel, to check my mirrors.

The second form of intelligence was artificial intelligence. Once I got on the highway, I turned on the self-driving feature in my car. Fancy. Now the car stayed in its own lane, kept an appropriate distance from the vehicle in front, and maintained a proper speed. No input from me at all.

When I got off of the highway, I used a third form of intelligence: augmented intelligence. Augmented intelligence, well, that took the form of all the driver-assist features in the vehicle, things like collision detection, to alert me if I got too close to the car in front, and blind spot avoidance to tell me if there was a vehicle alongside me as I changed lanes.

Artificial intelligence? Well, that is the ability for machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as reasoning, natural communication and problem solving. It basically replaces the need for a human. So, computers doing the work as humans not really needed. And the artificial intelligence performs certain tasks and makes decisions, and it’s incorporated into so many systems today.

Now contrast that with augmented intelligence. Now this is where you have machines. And you have humans both working together. And they’re doing so to enhance each other’s efforts when completing tasks.

Augmented intelligence systems augment human abilities, things like screen readers for the blind, voice-driven navigation, or my in-car collision avoidance system. They’re all examples of augmented intelligence at work. They act on our behalf in the physical world, but in a way that complements our own capabilities.

So, artificial or augmented? Which form of intelligence will give us the best results for a given problem? Well, to answer that, let’s create a strength matrix. So, machines vs. humans.

Now, one thing machines are great at is ingesting large amounts of data. They can take in more data at a faster rate than any human could, and they also don’t get tired so they can just keep going and going, ingesting that data as they go. Machines are especially good at things like repetitive tasks. And to do so in a way that is reliably accurate. Unlike my spelling of “repetitive”. So, if you need to quickly analyze a lot of data or do something over and over again with no margin for error and then specifically artificial intelligence is really your best bet.

Now, on the other hand, us humans, well, we have a few advantages, too. We’re very good at generalizing information. We can take a single piece of data and understand the concept that it represents.

We’re also very good at creativity. We can come up with ideas, we can solve problems, and communicate our findings in a way that, well, machines just can’t.

And we have emotional intelligence, too. And that’s a big benefit where we can understand the reactions of others, and it’s critical for tasks like customer service or caregiving.

Now augmented intelligence is really a sweet spot that combines all of these human strengths with a bit of a helping hand from our machine counterparts. By using AI to help us see and understand the world in new ways, we are able to do things that would be impossible for us humans on our own.

So, which form of intelligence is best?

The answer is both. And that’s why I love augmented intelligence. It’s how humans will continue to thrive and lead in the world and get me to work safely.