Augmented Intelligence ... NOT... Artificial Intelligence

AI should be Augmented Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence.     Whether we're watching a business TV channel or a weather channel, we're likely to hear about the coming impact from Artificial Intelligence. Few, if any, of these discussions have advanced our real understanding about what AI really is.

When it will be useful or how we can use it to gain any advantages without losing time, money, or maybe worse. At this point, it's unlikely that we have any individual insights into who is creating the models that will drive these new systems. Nor do we know what they know or what they don't know. Or what decisions they're making or how they're developing these models.

And what are their personal backgrounds that might affect the inputs and outputs of these models. And before we start to think, let's take a giant step back.

If we take a moment and think about our vehicle GPS and how it works, we can begin to surface some AI issues. Most of the time our GPS systems take us to the desired destination on a reasonable route. But at times the GPS might take us over an unpaved road, or to an entirely incorrect location.  We should certainly expect the same things could happen with artificial intelligence applications.

The difference is when our GPS takes us to the wrong location, we know it. We know we're not where we wanted to go. With AI, we may not know that we are way off course until it's too late to avoid a negative outcome.  Consequently, it would seem to be imperative to begin thinking about AI not as artificial intelligence, but as augmented intelligence;  ... something we can and must control.

AI must be something that's powerful and within our range of thoughts and understanding. Consequently, it seems AI must be something we effectively harness to help powerfully add to our thinking and decision making. We should not expect or want AI to replace our thinking.  To avoid inferior conclusions, AI must become strictly a net addition to our own intelligence. AI should help extend or refine our decisions.

To avoid inferior conclusions, AI must become strictly a net addition to our own intelligence. AI should help extend or refine our decision making and the related results. To do that, we need to gain a critical mass of new knowledge about how the models work. who created them, why they work in a particular fashion, and what they can and cannot do in an acceptable and additive manner.

As the eventual users of AI applications, we can start on this exciting journey by demanding a lot more information regarding the AI tools and the safeguards that really should be in place to assure that we're augmenting our outputs so that they are more useful and always appropriate.

As a great college football coach once said, when he was asked what he calls the plays instead of having his quarterback do it.  His response was, would you trust your job to an 18 year old? These models and their developers are likely to be teenagers for a very long time. So we need to know what plays are being called with AI and how they should work.

As good business managers, we should approach all AI use with caution and continuously seek more and more knowledge, so we get the best practices put in place. We have to be responsible for timely, quality results to gain the maximum benefits. while reducing risk. This is how we can make AI become augmented intelligence to advance our business interests and to enrich our lives.

As we progress, we might think of AI as a knife with a very sharp blade and a handle that's hard to hold. We will constantly need to be sure we're tightly holding the "AI Knife" in the right way as we sharpen it and begin using it to carefully cut into the more promising parts of the future.