How To Become A Centaur

One of my latest discoveries as a source of information is The Journal of Design and Science (JoDS), a joint venture between MIT Media Lab and MIT Press that is aimed at readers with open, curious minds, exploring timely, controversial topics in science, design, and society with a particular focus on the nuanced interactions among them. And in this marvelous site I discovered this spectacular article by Nicky Case: How To Become A Centaur.

It’s worthwhile to read it because it makes a journey of what Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Intelligence has been and how the future is the symbiosis between the two, the so-called Centaurs. Here are some key ideas of the article, but I assure you that it’s worth reading it.

• The more far-fetched concerns about AI (taking over the world and turning us all into pets and/or paperclips), it all comes from the same root fear: the fear that AI will not share our human goals and values. And what’s worse, we’ve told ourselves that our relationship between ourselves and our AI is like a chess game: Zero-sum — one player’s win is another player’s loss.
• Similar to how the mythological centaur was half-human, half-horse, these centaurs were teams that were half-human, half-AI. Not surprisingly, a Human+AI Centaur beats the solo human. But — amazingly — a Human+AI Centaur also beats the solo computer. (…) The “g factor”, also known as “general intelligence”, only accounts for 30–50% of an individual’s performance on different cognitive tasks. So while it is an important dimension, it’s not the only dimension. (…) Because humans & AIs are strong on different dimensions, together, as a centaur, they can beat out solo humans and computers alike.
• However, consider the “No Free Lunch” theorem, which comes from the field of machine learning itself. The theorem states that no problem-solving algorithm (or “intelligence”) can out-do random chance on all possible problems: instead, an intelligence has to specialize. (…) This may be a hopeful sign: even humans will continue to outsmart computers on some dimensions. (…) IA: Intelligence Augmentation. The old story of AI is about human brains working against silicon brains. The new story of IA will be about human brains working with silicon brains. As it turns out, most of the world is the opposite of a chess game: Non-zero-sum — both players can win.
• Doug Engelbart tied a brick to a pencil — to prove a point. Of all the tools we’ve created to augment our intelligence, writing may be the most important. But when he “de-augmented” the pencil, by tying a brick to it, it became much, much harder to even write a single word. And when you make it hard to do the low-level parts of writing, it becomes near impossible to do the higher-level parts of writing: organizing your thoughts, exploring new ideas and expressions, cutting it all down to what’s essential. That was Doug’s message: a tool doesn’t “just” make something easier — it allows for new, previously-impossible ways of thinking, of living, of being.
• Weak human + machine + better process was superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process. When you create a Human+AI team, the hard part isn’t the “AI”. It isn’t even the “Human”. It’s the “+”. (…) AIs are best at choosing answers. Humans are best at choosing questions. (…) So, when you think of augmenting human intelligence with AI, think less of assimilating into The Borg, and more of a spirited conversation between Kirk & Spock — a mix of intuition and logic that surpasses either one alone.
• Symbiosis shows us you can have fruitful collaborations even if you have different skills, or different goals, or are even different species. Symbiosis shows us that the world often isn’t zero-sum — it doesn’t have to be humans versus AI, or humans versus centaurs, or humans versus other humans. Symbiosis is two individuals succeeding together not despite, but because of, their differences. Symbiosis is the “+”.

The key idea, in addition to the Centaur concept, is the AIA: Artificial Intelligence Augmentation. Something that we have already been talking about in the article of Maurice Conti or in the one about Ken Goldberg and his multiplicity. I firmly believe in this idea. And you?

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