As I dig deeper into the world of Artificial Intelligence something is seemly so familiar.
My experience is with building systems that integrate IBM’s Watson in to existing organizations. Education, government and private sector firms it is all similar issues and challenges. The methodology seems the same as well, train AI with the knowledge and information you would as if you were educating or training a human. I suppose this gives us a metaphor and as humans we feel able to wrap our head around this new cognitive technology. Humanizing technology will lead to acceptance.
What I find interesting is what happens when you learn to communicate with AI at a different level, understanding what it wants and needs and how best to “speak the language”. AI works best when you understand how it works on a percentage of certainty basis. In other words it calculates in percentages the meaning of the interaction you have with it. Answering a question for example.
As humans we have been communicating a long time and have developed multiple ways of deriving communication. Oral, visual (body language), smell, taste….a sensory banquet. It is a complex combination that makes up simple communication and triggers emotions. In these early days of cognitive computing we need to think, communicate and act with AI at its own level to understand it. Empathy for a cognitive system…
To use a metaphor myself, dealing with Watson is like holding a conversation with first officer Spock from the original enterprise series. The ultimate in logic and big data analysis but struggles with his human emotional side. The rest of us are captain Kirk, emotional and irrational at times without the logic. Maybe Gene Roddenberry predicted yet another human desire with his legendary series and we can take a few lessons on how to deal with the future from this 1960’s cult tv series. Human/Machine relationships. After all the Enterprise always solved a problem by the logic of Spock and the emotions of Kirk. The combination of the two still entertains us to this day and together create a very powerful relationship.
– Kelly Parke
