Human Intelligence (HI) Versus Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Intelligence Augmentation (IA)

Artificial Intelligence (AI), as its name implies, is another form of intelligence analogous to our own Human Intelligence (HI). There is growing agreement that based on advances in deep reinforcement learning, AI has surpassed HI in some specific areas such as games and image/speech recognition. At the same time, there is disagreement among leading experts whether, and how quickly, this dominance will spread to other areas, what the implications of AI dominance are, whether AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) is feasible, let alone imminent, and on the possibility of exploiting advances in AI and related technologies to augment our own intelligence. The two authors have been debating whether AI is approaching HI or is closer to that of a hedgehog, and present their common position in this chapter that starts by comparing AI’s achievements to those of HI, concluding that they are of a different, complementary nature, while also presenting its current capabilities and future challenges. The second part discusses the future of AI and the uncertainties and challenges it faces. The final part presents four possible scenarios and discusses Intelligence Augmentation (IA) and the possibility of substantial improvements in HI by exploiting progress in AI and advances in the related technologies of nanotechnology and neuroscience. There is a concluding section deliberating about the long-term future of AI by presenting the views of the two authors.