Over the past few years, AI has dominated news cycles and captured the imagination of entrepreneurs, investors, and consumers alike. We can see the potential: self-driving transportation on-demand, robotic assistants in the home, and Amazon Echo version 14.0 to do things the human mind could never even contemplate.
That future isn’t far off — a decade or so, maybe.But as much as we talk and read about AI, many of us still think about it in the wrong way. People compare artificial intelligence to human intelligence too much and often see human intellect as the end goal for AI. Human intelligence is familiar, and it is natural to want to use it as the bar. But here’s the thing: Human intelligence is closer to the bottom end of the scale.
Human intelligence is not the bar
To many, the goal of AI is to create technology that can think like humans. But it’s oversimplifying to suggest that any intelligence — human or artificial — can be rated on such a simple scale as “better or worse.” Some people excel at memorization, logic, or emotional IQ, while others excel at the visual or auditory. Similarly, an AI may have strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, why have a goal of just matching human capability, when beating it is within reach?
Think about all the dimensions where AI seems to have already surpassed human intellect. Can a human translate a passage into any one of 300 languages in a fraction of a second? How about instantly determining the optimal driving route to avoid all traffic? Machines already outperform us in many tasks — specifically, those that involve the processing of big data.
What should we expect from AI?
Don’t get me wrong. I am excited about the deeper AI that begins to mimic a human’s ability to learn purely by observing and interacting with the world. This…
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