Human Vs AI

I want to share with you the story of how I got to work today. I once told you that my drive from my home to my office used three forms of intelligence. The first intelligence was human intelligence, the intelligence that I need to operate the vehicle, to turn steering, to checky mirrors and so on. 

The second form of intelligence is artificial intelligence, once I got on the highway, I turned on the self-driving feature in my car. Now the car stayed in its own lane, kept an appropriate distance from the vehicle in front and maintained a proper speed. No input from me at all. 

When I got off of the highway, I used a third form of intelligence, Augmented Intelligence. Augmented Intelligence took the form of all the driver assist features in the vehicle. things like collision detection to alert me if I got too close to the car in front, and blind spot avoidance to tell me if there was a vehicle alongside me as I changed lanes. 

Artificial intelligence, well that is the ability for machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as reasoning, natural communication, and problem solving. It basically replaces the need for a human. So computers are doing the work, us humans, not really needed.

And the artificial intelligence performs certain tasks and makes decisions. So in contrast to  augmented intelligence, this is where you have machines and you have humans both working together. And they're doing so to enhance each other's efforts when completing tasks.

Augmented intelligence systems augment our human abilities. Things like screen readers for the blind voice-driven navigation, or my in-car collision avoidance system. They're all examples of augmented intelligence at work. They act on our behalf in the physical world, but in a way that complements our own capabilities. 

So, artificial or augmented? Which form of intelligence will give us the best results for a given problem? Well, to answer that, let's create a strengths matrix. 

So, machines versus humans. Now, one thing machines are great at is ingesting large amounts of data at short period of time. They can take in more data at a faster rate than any human could, and they also don't get tired, so they can just keep going and going, ingesting that data as they go. Machines are especially good at things like repetitive tasks and to do so in a way that is reliably accurate.

So if you need to quickly analyze a lot of data or do something over and over again with no margin for error, then specifically artificial intelligence is really your best bet. 

Now, on the other hand, us humans, well, we have a few advantages too. We're very good at generalizing information. We can take a single piece of data and understand the concept that it represents. 

We're also very good at creativity. We can come up with ideas, we can solve problems, and communicate our findings in a way that, well, machines just can't. And we have emotional intelligence too. And that's a big benefit where we can understand the reactions of others. And it's critical for tasks like customer service or caregiving. 

Now, augmented intelligence is really a sweet spot that combines all of these human strengths with a bit of a helping hand from our machine counterparts. By using AI to help us see and understand the world in new ways, we are able to do things that would be impossible for us humans on our own. 

So, which form of intelligence is the best? The answer is both. And that's why I love Augmented Intelligence. It's how humans will continue to thrive and lead in the world. And get me to work safely. Thank you.

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