Augmented Intelligence: Leverage Smart Systems

Introduction

Dave Ferrucci, creator of IBM’s Watson supercomputer, founder and CEO of Elemental Cognition, recently said: “The next challenge for the artificial intelligence industry is for machines to go beyond simple pattern matching and to autonomously learn to understand and reason about the world the way people do. […] The demand for machines to explain and justify answers in terms humans can understand will grow with our desire to leverage computers in the process of human decision making, especially in areas where the reasons matter.” (Hastreiter, 2017).

A Gartner’s article, published in October 2018, presents the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2019 and following years (Panetta, 2018). One of these trends involves autonomous things, which includes cars, robots and drones, and other devices like appliances. Autonomous things use artificial intelligence (AI) to perform tasks, traditionally made by humans. Another trend is augmented analytics, where the huge amount of data generated nowadays, in fields such as businesses or internet of things (IoT), can be automatically analysed by algorithms that try to evaluate many hypothesis and hidden patterns, instead of only testing a minor set of possibilities, peradventure biased by personal views. Other trends comprise edge computing, a topology where the information processing and content collection and delivery are placed closer to the information sources. Smart spaces and digital ethics are examples of other trends.

All those trends include smart systems and AI, impacting in our day to day life, in our cities, and even in our free time. In this context, smart systems are stand-alone systems or systems that help users to make decisions by incorporating available data from different sensing, in a way to control and make smart actions, e.g., augmenting user’s actions and/or decisions, by using devices or additional “smart” information. The interfaces that allow those smart actions (i.e., smart interactions with users) could and should be different for each user, depending on the user’s characteristics and needs. Several examples of different interfaces for the same purpose can be presented: a kid that does not know how to read, cannot interact with a device using text; a senior with locomotion difficulties cannot use an application that sends him to climb stairs to go from point A to B; a person in a wheelchair cannot reach information or a touch interface placed at the same height as for a 2 meters “basketball player”; at home, or at a hotel, different persons have different needs for the rooms in term of luminosity or temperature; or blind or deaf persons need interfaces adapted to themselves. In short, there is an endlessness number of examples, including examples of robots or appliances that in the present and in the future will (intelligently) communicate with the users (humans).

Depending on context and authors, there are several definitions for augmented intelligence (Pasquinelli, 2015; Araya, 2018, 2019). This chapter refers to the effective use of information technology in augmenting human intelligence, and/or helping humans to augment their actions, so called smart actions. The fundamental idea is the use of AI to augment the user’s actions, i.e., to assist the human (worker), not replace him. A more detailed explanation can be found in the following section.

In summary, interfaces or interactions with users where one-size-fits-all is not and cannot be a solution in a near future. However, two problems in building adaptive interfaces can easily be identified; (a) how to harvest user’s information without his/her intervention (but with his/her consent), in a way to adapt the user interface, the room, the house, the “city”, to the needs and preferences of each individual user - put the augmented intelligence to the service of humans; and (b) how to minimize or even eradicate the fear that some users have of AI (and related fields).

Relatively to the latter, (b), artificial intelligence is still closely associated with some popular misconceptions, which cause the general public to either have unrealistic fears about AI, or to expect too much from it, especially in the way it will change our life in general. Latter discussed in this chapter; it is important to show that such fears are unfounded. On the opposite, new trends, technologies, and smart systems will be able to improve the way we live, benefiting the society, without replacing humans in their core activities.