Bates - Augmented mind: AI, humans and the superhuman revolution

At my company, Mtell, where my colleagues and I created systems to solve and avert crises in the manufacturing sector, I saw first-hand how human operators and mechanics added value and insights that were outside the AI system. I also saw how the AI system detected complex patterns and provided insights that humans could not see. Over the next ten years, we grew the company from a scrappy startup to a sophisticated company that was acquired by AspenTech in 2016. Throughout, I was consistently struck by the many ways in which human and AI capabilities are complementary.

So one might think that technologists, research scientists and investors are naturally scrambling to team up human beings with AI, to work in tandem. But that is not happening. In 2018, efforts in this area represent a tiny fraction of the total research and application focus in the fields of AI and machine learning. What little research has been done focuses primarily on physical tasks such as hybrid firefighting, driving cars, or battlefield warfare; or on simplistic virtual assistants.

While we have a term for the standalone, synthetic-replication approach, which is AI (artificial intelligence), we have no word for the combined, enhanced approach that I propose, which is different from hybrid intelligence, human agent collaboration, intelligence amplification, and augmented intelligence. In this book, I will use the term intelligence augmentation (IA), or Augmentation for short, for this combined approach, one that is capable of so much more, that we can and should be pouring resources into it. With luck, it will become formally accepted, which would help solve the Tower of Babel issue we face--that we have no coherent way to track or bring focus to it.

Why havent we evolved to move closer to this to this augmentation approach? Because parts of the mainstream AI community are resistant to it, the augmentation approach, and would preferring to focus on replicating human intelligence and capabilities. But going down that path could actually delay the potential benefits that lay just over the horizon. CHASING EPIPHANIES will explore the historical reasons for this resistance, discuss the work of an unsung augmentation pioneer named J.C.R. Licklider, and examine recent projects on the intelligence augmentation path, all with an eye towards the extraordinary benefits that path has to offer.

AI has always had a focus on practical applications, with many breakthroughs coming at the intersection of research and business communities working closely together. So this book is also an appeal to both of those communities, especially investors, who hold the key to the capital infusions that can unlock this next revolution. The path lies before you--its up to you to choose it.