š¤Machine-powered superminds have arrived. Are you ready?
I grew up in a part of the world where we had just 3 seasons - hot, hotter, hottest! I enjoyed it. After moving to the US, Iāve been experiencing the four seasons, in all their glory. If I were to pick a favorite, it will be Springš±.
I love seeing the tiny green shoots sprout out after months of being buried by inhospitable surroundings. I root for them and cheer their comeback story. Itās March already and Iām eager to welcome the new season soonš!
This newsletter will take you aboutĀ 5 minutesĀ to read.
I. Spotlight:Ā š¤Machine-powered Superminds have arrived. Are you ready?
A landmark battle was on in New York City on May 11, 1997. This contest was dubbed as the brainās last stand and was seen as the proverbial human-versus-machine duel. In the end, IBMās Deep Blue trounced the then World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov.
It changed the way humans looked at AI.
(Picture by GR Stocks on Unsplash)
Over the next two decades, AI grew a lot more intelligent. It mastered a range of games from Pacman to Go. It reached human parity in tasks such as object recognition and machine translation.
Within a century, machine intelligence has progressed from simple rules to deep cognition (see picture).
In contrast, have humans gotten smarter over time? We surely have made progress and are now closer to Mars. However, can we say that the average human has gotten remarkably more intelligent over the past 10,000 years?
Thatās a wrong question.
Rather than gauge human progress with individual intelligence, we should examine the intelligence of the collective. We humans have shown remarkable ability to organize ourselves in groups - as tribes, societies, and global communities.
āAlmost everything we humans have ever done has been done not by lone individuals, but by groups of people working together,ā says Thomas W. Malone, Professor at MIT Sloan School of Management. Research indicates that individual brilliance has given way to innovation by large teams.
This is a more useful way to gauge human progress (see picture).
Having seen the intelligence scales of machines and humans, which of these will drive innovation in the future?
Again, wrong question!
Itās not a zero-sum game. The magic is in bringing humans and machines together, as presented in this research by MIT Center for Collective Intelligence (see picture with a recreation of their report).
This chart shows whatās possible when we view this as a collaboration rather than a competition. The zones in red indicate individual brilliance and perhaps a competition mindset.
The magic is really along the diagonal in this chart.
Augmented intelligence combines the strength of AI with individuals or small groups of people. For example, imagine physicians using AI to improve disease diagnosis. Today, we are scraping the surface of augmented intelligence.
Thankfully, this trend is picking up.
In this chart, further along the diagonal is where the real value lies. Augmented Collective Intelligence is the combination of large networks of smart machines with large groups of people, highly connected together.
āThe collective response to COVID-19 is a good example of augmented collective intelligence,ā says Gianni Giacomelli, Head of Innovation Design at MIT CCI.
When SARS erupted in 2003, it ripped through a world that was not very different from today, but the intelligence was far less connected then. In contrast, our response to COVID-19 was very different. We saw thousands of scientific papers, the exchange of crucial data, and global scientific collaboration that enabled emergency response and led to an accelerated vaccine timeline.
The big takeaway here is that our narrative must shift from competing against machines to collaborating with them. To build a supermind level of intelligence, we must scale deep networks of both humans and smart machines. Enterprises can create their own superminds using the ACI framework that inspired this post.
In conclusion, Kasparov clarifies in his book that his loss to Deep Blue was really a victory for humans. āThe machines work for us, after all,ā he adds.
II. Industry Roundup:
1. A New AI Makes Mistakesāon Purpose
5 minutes | Wired | Will Knight
AI mastered chess with an approach called reinforcement learning. Typically, the machine is taught winning moves. But, what if you teach it the most likely human moves? They can learn to predict and play like humans, including their mistakes. Perhaps, this will help AI work alongside people or negotiate with them.
->Ā Read the Article
2. When should you use AI to solve problems?
7 minutes | HBR | Bob Suh
Portfolio managers are discovering that they must learn to pick the best algorithm rather than the best stock. Similarly, executives across fields will face a self-disrupting choice: learn to operate the machine, or be replaced by it. Leaders must know when to hand off to AI and when to use the managerial mind. Itās critical but not easy.
->Ā Read the Article
III. From my Desk:Ā
1. Forbes Article: The 5 surprising tips to jumpstart data science
There are five critical steps that pharma leaders foraying into advanced analytics must take. Despite their apparent simplicity, they are often overlooked in organizations. Check out how you can improve your choice of early projects, how to get funding, the skills you must staff for, and the kind of data and analytics techniques to use.
->Ā Read the Article (52,000 views on LinkedIn)
2. Gramener among top 3 winners of the Edison Award for Innovation!
GramenerĀ is honored to be a finalist in the 2021Ā Edison AwardsĀ forĀ Innovation, along with Google Maps and Bedrock Ocean Exploration. The recognition is for our AI Solution that helps bust the spread of mosquito-borne diseases to save millions of lives.
->Ā Check out the Edison awards
3. Interview: How to use data to tell your own stories?
I was on the Insomnicat Show talking about how data could radically disrupt organizations in 2030. I discuss what a Chief Decision Scientist doesš and share an example of using data in my personal space (sneak preview - Iāve been time logging every single day, for the past 3 years. Find out what I do with this data!)
Have you seen the latest deepfake AI that animates old photos - and is creeping people out?š²
Thank you for subscribing and reading the newsletter. I appreciate your attention,
Ganes.
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