What Could Be Better than Artificial Intelligence?

Note: While recently browsing some files, I came across this article I wrote in January 2020. It may seem somewhat naive now but I'm still hopeful that there will continue to be a place for us humans.

As a child, my imagination was sparked by science fiction. As a young adult, I discovered Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, and a few others. I’m generally inclined to look forward to new advancements in technology.  So, I admit that I’m excited about the innovations that may come from Artificial Intelligence.  The dire predictions of the end of humankind notwithstanding, I’m generally hopeful and optimistic about what is on the horizon. 

The term Artificial Intelligence was coined in 1955 by John McCarthy, who was then a professor of computer science at Stanford University. He described intelligence as “the computational part of the ability to achieve goals in the world. Varying kinds and degrees of intelligence occur in people, many animals and some machines.” Human intelligence includes such attributes as logic, reasoning, conceptualization, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, planning, creativity, abstract thinking, and problem solving. A machine is generally considered to use AI if it can perform in a way that matches these abilities.

AI is an imitation of human intelligence.  How good will the imitation ever be?  Will there come a time when we can’t tell the difference?  Will there always be a place for human intelligence?

This leads me to something else, something I’m going to call Authentic Intelligence or Au-I for short.  I’m tempted to Google it to see if anyone else has coined the term but I’m going to wait until after I write this article.  My suspicion is that there’s nothing original here.  As it says in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”  But, original or not, here’s what I think.

If something is authentic, you would say it is real or genuine.  It is something that is distinguished from its imitations.  If you have the good fortune of owning a great work of art, you want to know that it is authentic and not a forgery.  You want the $100 bill in your pocket to be real and not counterfeit.  When it comes to friendship, the ones you value most are the “real friends,” those you can count on in any situation. 

I think Authentic Intelligence would place a priority on the truth, discovering the nature of reality in whatever subject is being explored.  People who possess authentic intelligence would be truthful in a way that combines honesty with compassion.  It might also be a composite of other measurements of human intelligence including IQ and EQ along with a novel term known as CQ or creative intelligence.  Taken together, these kinds of intelligence are highly relational since it would be hard to think of meaningful expressions happening in a vacuum where there were no other humans.

Artificial Intelligence may meet or exceed the speed of some forms of human intelligence, but Authentic Intelligence might guide us into what it means to be truly human.

Thanks for reading.

I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, or experiences in the comment section below.

--Danny

---

If you'd like to know when I post something new, you can subscribe here.

And if you ever decide these notes are no longer useful, you can update your email preferences using the link included in the email notification for new posts, or simply let me know and I'll take care of it. No hard feelings at all.