Smart versus Intelligent

Smart versus Intelligent

Most of what we know about AI know comes from two sources: the brainiacs inventing the technologies we that will use AI in the future.  No, not all of them will be human-like robots. AI will be embedded in all the tools we use.  Our watches, our glasses, our clothes, our automobiles, our appliances, will all use AI in their processors.  Numerous government, education and private sector companies are pioneering AI as, yes, robotic devices, but also as logic delivered as apps that will perpetuate across every technology we use, via the Internet of Things (IOT).

The second source of AI documentation comes from literature.  Yeah, good ol’ SCI FI will always been one step ahead of us. Many of us are, in fact, wearing Dick Tracy’s watch.  Our tasers are Star Trek phasers set to stun. And boy oh boy, if Jules Verne could see us now! Those things we once called science fiction are now, in fact, science fact, begging the question, what’s next?

The answer is simple.  Today all our devices smart but in the not too distant future, our phones, cars, refrigerators, etc., etc. will be intelligent, where the tools we take for granted will use algorithmic logic to help us in every way possible be…what?  Be happy.

What we are seeing with AI is that it’s being implemented in many different ways. Each industry segment are actively looking at how to leverage AI technology into their business. AI technologies are being implemented as a competitive advantage; a way to reduce costs or enabling improve customer relationship.  With the explosion in different algorithms and the sheer amount of Open Source Software that is available for use, it’s a race for businesses to leverage AI to keep up with the competition.

The competition is apparent in consumer industries – Google’s Home, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa are examples of this, but it’s also permeating into multiple other businesses such as healthcare, finance and travel.

The Fairy God Model

The Fairy God Model

Happiness.  It’s a word used liberally to describe our emotional perspective on nearly everything in our lives.  Are you happy with your job? Are you happy with your car? Are you happy with your relationship? With your teacher?  And on and on. Those are relatively simple questions that we often respond quickly to, either yes or no and the reasoning why.  But happiness is a very complex topic and its attainment is highly elusive.

Hundreds of essays and books attempt to define happiness.  Eastern philosophy teaches us to look internally for balance and harmony as the keystones of happiness.  Western philosophy has all but been lost to a bombardment of ads for everything from autos to clothes to make up and numerous other externalities promoted to help us find happiness.  In all fairness, both Eastern and Western philosophies have religious offerings that found many of our society rules and personal guidelines, within which personal satisfaction, development and maturity can be defined.  But across the globe, consumerism has become the staple of happiness for many of us. As we excavate the ruins of temples from the past, we find many epitaphs to gods and rulers, the lasting memorials to the influences of those societies.  Generations from now, how will our descendants interpret the thousands of Starbucks and Golden Arches they dig up?

So what does all this have to do with artificial intelligence (AI)?  Everything. AI represents mankind’s first endeavor to empower technology to make decisions and perform actions on our behalf.  The decisions they make and the actions they perform will have to follow some form of rationale and that rationale will be based on the foundations of happiness.

Imagine when your car automatically slows down to avoid getting pulled over by a traffic officer you did not even see.  Or when your phone arranges dinner with an unknown person from across town meets because you are both single and have shared interests.  Or when your shirt summons an ambulance because it detected an imminent stroke you are about to have. These are not decisions and actions that would disappoint you.  The AI logic behind these examples would act like you own Fairy God Model, gathering, interpreting and weighing outcomes that would ultimately benefit you, make you happy and perhaps even save your life.

The Digital Bridge

The Digital Bridge

Widespread personal and commercial use of the Cloud is now commonly being referred to as a Digital Experience.  This term has a variety of interpretations.  Some practitioners focus on the devices used, including mobile, tablet and browser.  Others look at digital from an interactive perspective, both social and corporate collaboration.  While yet another look at digital from a transactional perspective, like on-line shopping and on-line annual benefits enrollment.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Whereas all these features are part of today’s on-line experience, they describe Internet and Intranet capabilities that have been in place for over a decade.  And the single commonality of all our technological experiences since the dawn of the mainframe is that they require users to access technologies to get information, conduct processes and engage with others.

Digital Experiences are different.  Digital technologies proactively push information to the user versus waiting for users to come get it.   Digital processes provide needed actions to users without them looking for them.

Consider this example:

You have just gone through airport security and are headed to your gate.  When you get there, you see a different flight is boarding. You look at the hotel monitors (off-line experience) and see that your new gate is across the airport in another terminal.  You rush to the new gate and pull up your phone (on-line experience) to confirm the departure time. You rush in hopes of making your flight.

Or.

While going through security, you receive a text saying your gate has changed and you take action accordingly.

The first scenario shows how both on-line and off-line technologies are available for a user to find key information needed to make a decision and take action.  The second example describes how digital technologies are different. Digital Experiences are a push of timely, relevant, personalized insight to the device of your choosing to enable decision making and action.  Digital technologies enable the fifth and final component of the Information Age: Personalization.

The Information Age

The Information Age

If the telephone was the first globally impactful invention, the personal computer was the second.  Developments in mainframe and midrange computers gave rise to the microcomputer in the 1980’s. This personal computer (PC), as it became known, took computer processing out the hands of large corporations, universities and governmental institutions and let people everywhere use this technology.

What came next was a massive production boom of both hardware and software during the 1980’s and 90’s.  The expansion and utilization of these devices introduced the second component of the Intelligence Age: Computation.  In the 1950’s and 1960’s, the computing power of NASA utilized room-sized computers and card entry systems requiring significant effort, deliberation and validation for basic input and output of modest calculations.  PC’s changed all that with more-intuitive input devices, like keyboards and mice, and software to automate just about any process.