AI Augments Human Intelligence

There’s a lot of debate over the future and the capabilities of Artificial Intelligence in the public discourse today. A major issue that seems to be at the forefront of this debate is the concept of trust. AI is seen widely as a stand-alone ability that will operate without human participation but will have an impact on human society and the human ability to be productive contributors. In this post we will engage with this concern- we will like to add a different perspective to this conversation. A position that others have resonated with: that artificial intelligence is intelligence that will augment human capabilities and abilities to resolve our biggest challenges, both business and societal.    

Data scientist, Nick Ismail made a very clear argument for the concept of augmented intelligence in his blog- Augmented Intelligence: Why the Human Factor Can’t Be Forgotten. 

He explained that - “The concept of augmented intelligence is not to replace humans, but rather capitalise on the combination of algorithms, machine learning, and data science to inform human decision-making abilities.”   

A16Z’s staff writer, Niko Grupen in his piece-AlphaFold, GPT-3 and How to Augment Intelligence with AI,

further explained the opportunity that exists- “The goal of augmented intelligence is to make manual processes... more efficient so humans can spend more time on the things they are good at, like reasoning and strategizing.”    

Case in point - AlphaFold, an AI model that can algorithmically create new proteins that do not appear naturally but adhere to natural folding laws. The applications of these de novo (new variants) proteins are profound — new proteins will help us develop better vaccines, fight cancer, and break down materials that harm the environment. While AI models excel in repetitive and structural tasks, business owners, innovators and scientists can harness this power to reinforce their role as strategists and deep thinkers- roles that iterative AI models cannot spearhead.   

To embrace and utilize augmented intelligence business leaders will have to reimagine the way they run their organisations and to an extent the very priorities of business operations. There are four building blocks that organisations need to put in place to make the best of augmented intelligence processes.    

1. Data   

A resilient advantage that organisations can obtain is data as raw material and a strategic asset. To augment human decision-making, data on the contributors will allow organisations to take pre-emptive measures that can help them. This is common among elite sportspersons and we believe it is important for key decision-makers too. This along with, of course, vital operational data.   

2. Machine Learning Analytics   

Machine learning analytics goes far beyond offering cost-saving and efficiency-oriented insights, they can identify research, development and innovation opportunities as well. The latest techniques allow organisations to interpret and exploit their accumulated data in ways and at a scale and pace that is unprecedented.    

Machine learning algorithms are effective in dealing with advanced dimensions of complexity, be it in spotting fraudulent transactions after assessing millions of them within a matter of seconds, or recognizing patterns after being trained with billions of texts.Humans will take weeks to do the same work. Machines as of now have no limits when it comes to investigating complexity.    

3. Judgement   

The human role defines artificial intelligence’s direction in assessing value. In their book- Prediction Machines: The Simple Economics of Artificial Intelligence, co-authors Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans & Avi Goldbarb make a useful statement. Artificial intelligence’s core competency is in the area of making predictions. This in itself is not enough to replace professionals, since prediction is one of several inputs into the process of decision-making, the authors argue. Another is that undervalued input called judgment.   

With the increased integration of AI, the value of human judgement is set to increase in areas where decision-making is of vital consequence- namely business. AI will dramatically enhance the speed of delivering predictions by categorising and sorting data and picking out patterns. But turning those lessons into business advice, and prioritising them in terms of success, requires the analysis of a wide-ranging combination of emotional, intellectual, ethical and practical considerations that is very much human. This synergy realizes the potential of augmented intelligence.    

4. Culture   

A crucial aspect of augmented intelligence is developing the right culture that breeds leadership, and decision-making, an organisational culture that is radically different. Decision-making empowerment needs to decentralize so that data-driven decisions are made at all levels.   

The workforce and the workflow are evolving- programmers are moving beyond building software repositories and writing intricate programmes to collect, clean, manipulate, classify, analyse and visualize data that feeds decision-making channels and promotes actions. This human + machine + process approach is ushering in a new era of heightened productivity and unmatched competitive advantage for our clients.    

With our expertise in this subject, we have helped our clients in the Ooh, fintech and retail industries accumulate massive competitive advantages. We look forward to helping you make the best of AI that augments human intelligence. Click here to connect with us.