Human vs. AI? Nah. It is the Human + AI Evolution
Mind-as-a-Service: The First Human-Centric Artificial Intelligence Evolution Blueprint
Sir and Madame, How would you like your Intelligence?
This is a question you will be asked in the near future.
Many have characterized our coming future as an AI Revolution. AI, we are told, will overthrow the human race and take over the world, changing everything irreversibly. Thankfully, it is simply not true — or, at the very least, it is just an exaggeration. We don’t want AI to replace us and enjoy life instead of us. We don’t want a revolution that destroys our society. To prevent that kind of future, all we need to do is treat AI the same way we treat other human inventions, only with more care and safeguards. When cars were invented, we developed traffic laws to manage their use. Because we invented firearms, we also had to implement gun control laws. The only thing that makes AI different is that it’s smarter. But that shouldn’t be a cause of worry. It’s still essentially an extension to our own intelligence. We don’t compete with cars by trying to outrun them, and we shouldn’t get discouraged when we lose to a machine that is built to be smarter.
How? It is really up to us. AI is an extension to our intelligence, not a replacement. If we create AI as our replacement, it will be our replacement. If we create AI as our extension, it is part of us.
Mind as a Service (MaaS), is the first “Human-First Human-Centric” AI Blueprint and the outcome of an AI research project that seeks to maximize human productivity through new AI technologies. Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) is practical because anyone can start planning, implementing and adopting it. It is universal because it impacts everyone, no matter your social role, whether you are a business leader, government official, employee, freelancer, parent, or student. Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) is future focused with the present firmly in mind. The concepts may sound a bit ahead of our time, but I can foresee the practicality will arrive sooner than we think.
Mind as a Service (MaaS) is a “Human-First” Human-Centric AI Evolution blueprint that considers Artificial Intelligence as an evolutional extension to human capacities, reinforced by seamless Human-AI Mind integration.
Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) is also a framework that classifies and positions AI in our society. We have gone through similar frameworks as new inventions matured throughout history, just as we position animals (domestic pets vs. farming animals), guns and hammers (weapons vs. tools), and Tylenol 3 and Tylenol 1 (prescription drug vs. over-the-counter medication).
Human’ = Human + AI
Seeing AI machines as an extension of human capacities means that Human’ = Human + AI. They are, in a lot of ways, like the cars we drive, which are really extensions of our legs designed to bring us from point A to point B more efficiently. As an extension of human beings, AI machines do not have rights or liabilities on their own, only the manufacturer or accountable owner do. They are, then, a lot like cars, which are only as safe as we are and that bear no liability for our use of them. This classification might not seem so urgent in the current, narrow stage of AI. But as we move from non-sentient artificial intelligence focused on single narrow tasks to artificial intelligences that can make larger critical decisions, this classification will become very important.
In order to control AI that is potentially smarter than us, we come to the part of MaaS concerned with the “seamless Human-AI Integration across intelligence, personality, and emotions.” Essentially, by minimizing interactions and friction with our AI extensions, we can connect and integrate with the AI across various levels. The AI will become part of us, and our cognition and intellectual abilities will be extended by AI.
On the moral side, MaaS doesn’t suggest that our AI extension will inherit all of our ethics and values. Instead, ethical restraints will be enforced through regulations, whether from industry or government.
That might sound strange at first, but it is essentially the practice we have been applying to everything from utilities to weapons and chemical substances. AI has impressive capabilities, but they are still objects and they will be classified as such in our ethical considerations.
The only difference between an AI machine and a hammer, a car, a gun, or a drug is that the machine is smarter and can make decisions on its own. Under the MaaS framework, regulation will be enforced by educating the AI.
Mind as a Service (MaaS) is a Human-First Human-AI Evolution
Many have characterized our coming future as an AI Revolution. AI, we are told, will overthrow the human race and take over the world, changing everything irreversibly. Thankfully, it is simply not true — or, at the very least, it is just an exaggeration. We don’t want AI to replace us and enjoy life instead of us. We don’t want a revolution that destroys our society. To prevent that kind of future, all we need to do is treat AI the same way we treat other human inventions, only with more care and safeguards. When cars were invented, we developed traffic laws to manage their use. Because we invented firearms, we also had to implement gun control laws. The only thing that makes AI different is that it’s smarter. But that shouldn’t be a cause of worry. It’s still essentially an extension to our own intelligence. We don’t compete with cars by trying to outrun them, and we shouldn’t get discouraged when we lose to a machine that is built to be smarter.
What I foresee is not an AI Revolution but an AI Evolution. With MaaS, humans can evolve rapidly, skipping millions of years to acquire new skills, forms of intelligence, and advanced productivity by leveraging technologies. AI is to our brains as our cars are to our legs. Cars take us from point A to point B with extreme efficiency without us needing to wait for evolution to gift us with 10 pairs of legs. Likewise, AI allows the brain to extend its capacities and acquire, absorb, and interpret information for when we want it to and in the way we prefer.
Human-AI Evolution is the core concept of Mind-as-a-Service.
Mind as a Service Takes Sides — The Human Side
The MaaS model considers AI a tool –an extension to our capabilities, rather than something we just buy and own. MaaS-Intelligent-Agents (M.I.A./MIA for short, an intelligence artificial agent which could be a combination of software and hardware), will become a part of us, like a third arm or a second brain. However, instead of us learning, experiencing, or thinking of how to use this new tool, the tool will adapt itself to us. It will think for us. You heard that right: thinking for us! Not for itself!
In current technology and data analytics, the businesses that develop and maintain the intelligent services own the data produced or captured through them. For example, Amazon owns all your purchasing and browsing data, and they use the data to recommend products to you.
Call this the Outside-In model. It involves an external artificial intelligence pushing decisions and “recommendations” upon us. In these cases, the recommendation that you receive is bounded to the ecosystems of the company you are interacting with; they are not sharing across platforms and talking to each other. The AI who is “serving” you have hidden agendas. These corporate machines are smart and they don’t reveal their agenda, but it is obvious if “they” have to choose a side, it won’t be ours.
MaaS proposes a different philosophy, one that puts our most valuable machine age assets — our data, our control — back into our hands. The Mind as a Service model centralizes the AI’s capabilities and gives us full control of our data and the decision to use it or act on it. It is an Inside-Out model.
There are a few immediately obvious advantages to this approach:
- Our decisions are not biased in favor of external parties
- Full control of decision-making capabilities
- Full control of data privacy
Rather than attempting to influence or manipulate our decision-making, AI guided by MaaS help us in our autonomous decision-making by saving us from the time it takes to think over and make choices about every small detail.
Mind as a Service: Your Mind at Your Service
An MIA will be like a cloned mind that helps me make daily decisions. As technology advances and our lives get more complicated, we do not want to spend much of our energy and brain power on things that are not productive to us. For example, when to wake up and leave home if we want to get the most amount of sleep while still making it to our 7:45 meeting with a full stomach. Your MIA would be able to figure out these details for you in real time and reassess the plan if the situation changes in any way. Instead of trying to decide when to set your alarm clock, it will free you up to worry about what to say in the meeting. Your MIA will know your history, character, and how you’re feeling in the moment. Because of that, it won’t force a decision on you but will make the same decisions you would, decisions that reflect your personality.
Mind as a Service: Other People’s Minds at Your Service
MaaS-driven AI will know your personality but will also allow you to outsource your decision-making to someone else. Let’s say you idolize Brad Pitt and want to have his style. With his permission, you (along with his other fans) could use your Brad Pitt MIA to make the same decisions he would. For example, you could walk into a clothing store and know exactly what outfits Brad Pitt would choose or endorse if he were there. As the model matures, you could even create a kind of panel of other minds to guide your decision-making. Imagine being able to get real-time advice from a think tank of people you admire!
Mind as a Service: Your Mind Provides Service to Others
The MaaS that follows you 24/7 will gradually get a better understanding of how you make decisions. As it becomes more sophisticated, you will be able to clone your Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) agent and outsource it to your employer, who can then leverage have you make decisions and interact with customers through your MIA. You might be wondering why an employer would go through the trouble instead of simply getting a generic AI machine to do the tasks. The key here is that every Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) is unique and has a with different character, just like us. Our MaaS will be valuable to employers because everyone wants to interact with different human beings. Our MIA clones will have a distinct personality that will add a personal touch in customer interactions. For example, a kind-hearted MIA can be hired as a service agent at Disney to serve. History shows us that our expectations only go higher as technology advances, and this will be no different. We will be asking for real AI — AI that represent real people, not invented characters or fine-tuned algorithms.
Augmented AI is the beginning of Mind as a Service
Like every technology, this will take some time. The technology and infrastructure have to be developed, and more importantly, we need a culture that will support Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) architecture. It also takes time for an MIA to learn our individual thought patters, personalities, and preferences. The tech sector is getting more familiar with artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analytics. But we are still far from building machines that can learn from us in a very meaningful way, let alone make decisions for us. Over the course of Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS)’s evolution, we will see it go through stages of complexity, and we will have the opportunity to adapt as it develops. In part 5 of my new book Taming Artificial Intelligence: Mind-as-a-Service, we will discuss in detail the different levels of Mind-as-a-Service (MaaS) AI capabilities.
I have a more detailed discussion about AI in my new book Taming Artificial Intelligence: Mind-as-a-Service. You will learn not only about today’s AI progression, but also new ideas on how we can resolve the clash between Human and AI. The book will discuss much more than just AI of today, but about an inspiring AI Evolution concept that will change our way to live with Artificial Intelligence in harmony. My new book introduces Mind-as-a-Service which is the first Human AI Evolution framework to prepare us in the inevitable clash between Human and AI.
I also publish my post on my site Mind Data AI, which I have articles about AI, Machine Learning, Robotics, and debates on various AI topics.
Thanks for reading. You may contact me via my contact page.
