intelligence augmentation
In plain wordsUsing computers to make people smarter and more capable rather than building machines that think on their own: AI as a tool for human minds.
A research tradition and design goal that uses computing to extend human intellectual capabilities, such as memory, perception, reasoning, communication and collaboration, rather than to replicate or replace human intelligence in autonomous machines. Historically it was a rival program to artificial intelligence ('IA versus AI'), and interactive computing, the mouse, hypertext and the personal computer came largely from the IA side. With large language modelslarge language model, n.: A computer program trained on enormous amounts of text to predict the words that come next. At vast scale, that simple skill lets it chat, answer questions, translate, summarize and write code. the distinction has blurred, since the same system can act as an autonomous agentAI agent, n.: An AI system that does not just answer but acts: given a goal, it decides on steps, uses tools such as a browser or code editor, checks the results and keeps going until the job is done. or as a thinking aid, and IA is now invoked mainly as a preference for keeping humans in control, alongside human-centered AIhuman-centered AI, n.: An approach to AI that puts people's needs, abilities and control at the center: systems designed to help humans do things better rather than to replace or overrule them. and the centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature. model. Some fields, notably medicine, use 'augmented intelligence' as a deliberate substitute for 'artificial intelligence'.
He treats the assistant as intelligence augmentation: it widens what one engineer can keep in mind at once.
Origin
W. Ross Ashby wrote of amplifying intelligence in An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956); J. C. R. Licklider's 'Man-Computer Symbiosis' (1960) and Douglas Engelbart's report 'Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework' (1962) set out the program. The AI-versus-IA rivalry is chronicled in John Markoff's Machines of Loving Grace (2015).
Related
- augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own.
- human-centered AIhuman-centered AI, n.: An approach to AI that puts people's needs, abilities and control at the center: systems designed to help humans do things better rather than to replace or overrule them.
- centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature.
- Turing trapTuring trap, n.: The risk that by building AI mainly to imitate and replace people, rather than to extend what people can do, society ends up with less widely shared prosperity and weaker bargaining power for workers.
- co-intelligenceco-intelligence, n.: Ethan Mollick's term for working and thinking alongside AI as a partner — treating it like a capable but odd colleague whose strengths and blind spots you learn through experience.
- extended mindextended mind, n.: The idea that the mind can reach beyond the head into tools we rely on — a notebook, a phone, perhaps an AI assistant — when they play the same role that memory or reasoning would.
- artificial intelligenceartificial intelligence, n.: Computer systems that do things we would normally credit to a thinking mind, such as holding a conversation, reading an X-ray or planning a route, and the field of research that builds them.
Sources
- Engelbart, D. C. (1962). Augmenting Human Intellect: A Conceptual Framework. Stanford Research Institute, Summary Report AFOSR-3223.
- Licklider, J. C. R. (1960). Man-Computer Symbiosis. IRE Transactions on Human Factors in Electronics HFE-1, 4–11.
Mentioned in
artificial intelligenceartificial intelligence, n.: Computer systems that do things we would normally credit to a thinking mind, such as holding a conversation, reading an X-ray or planning a route, and the field of research that builds them., augmentationaugmentation, n.: Using AI to help people do their work better or faster while they stay in charge, instead of having the AI do the job on its own., centaurcentaur, n.: A human and an AI working as a team, each doing what it does best, like a chess player who consults a computer before every move. The name comes from the mythical half-human, half-horse creature., human-centered AIhuman-centered AI, n.: An approach to AI that puts people's needs, abilities and control at the center: systems designed to help humans do things better rather than to replace or overrule them., co-intelligenceco-intelligence, n.: Ethan Mollick's term for working and thinking alongside AI as a partner — treating it like a capable but odd colleague whose strengths and blind spots you learn through experience., extended mindextended mind, n.: The idea that the mind can reach beyond the head into tools we rely on — a notebook, a phone, perhaps an AI assistant — when they play the same role that memory or reasoning would., J. C. R. LickliderJ. C. R. Licklider, prop. n.: An American psychologist who envisioned people and computers working in close partnership, and whose US government funding built early AI research and the precursor of the internet., Turing trapTuring trap, n.: The risk that by building AI mainly to imitate and replace people, rather than to extend what people can do, society ends up with less widely shared prosperity and weaker bargaining power for workers.