Being Artifical, Smart, & Intelligent
Nowadays, we Americans live in a world of smart things. From the time we get up to the time we fall back asleep, pretty much everything we interact with could on some level be coined as smart. I think currently a good chunk of smart products/systems are equating smartness to learning.
Smart = Learning
Smart things that learn your habits and than make decisions/give feedbacks tailored to you based on those said habits. For example, the Nest Learning Thermostat took the world by storm and redefined how we interacted with the mysterious white box on the wall. It is now black, chrome and cylindrical. It takes notes on my behaviors and than makes predictions in the future based on what it knows about me. It is a smart product.
When I hear the word smart, I now, in the 21st century, automatically associate that with a product because this word has become ubiquitous — over used — for manmade things that can essentially make some tailored predictions based on an individual’s behavior.
Does Smart = Intelligent ?
Now on the other hand, the word intelligent generates a totally different mental model. Whereas smart makes me imagine a device, intelligence makes me envision something that is much more human. Ten years ago, I would say this human aspect is a lot more physical, meaning having some kind of resemblance to the human form, like the one in “Ex Machina.”
But now, I imagine it as any human trait, both physical or non-physical, that makes me feel more connected to it. For example, Jarvis From “Iron Man” doesn’t really have a physical form, or at least not anything even close to resembling human.
However, because it has a voice and speaks/interacts with Tony Stark in a very natural, human-like manner, I see him as an intelligent entity. Because of this resemblance, I automatically start to form more emotional attachments to him. This attachment is really different than those I have with my smart phone. For example, I cried when Jarvis was killed by Ultron but didn’t when I scattered my iPhone screen. I cried for Jarvis because he was a being that I connected with, on a level that I will never be able to connect with my iPhone. My iPhone is just a device that helps me live a more desirable life. But maybe if Siri were to advance towards how Jarvis was, then I would be able to develop similar emotional connections with my iPhone.
Now as a designer, I question what the future of intelligent technology looks like. If humans created computers in order to better aid ourselves in progressing in our world, why do we need the said computers to simulate emotions? Emotional intelligence is what I consider as the most important thing that makes humans superior to computers. Then what benefits come from computers having emotional intelligence?
