K03 - Making Humans Smarter Than Artificial Intelligence: Digital Technologies to Amplify Human Perception and Cognition

Albrecht Schmidt

Professeur à l'Université Ludwig-Maximilians de Munich (LMU Munich)

Is artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world? Are humans losing out to AI in the work place? We are at a point in history, where it seems feasible that we create technologies that could become smarter than humans. This raises the fundamental question of what roles humans play in a future world. I argue that by using these advances in technologies and in particular in sensing and AI we can amplify human perception and cognition to levels that we could never before in history even imagine. We are at the beginning of this fundamental transformation: the use of digital tools to amplify the mind. Many products, ranging from mobile access to search engines, to wearable devices for lifelogging and augmented realty application give us first indications of this transition. In our research we create novel digital technologies that systematically explore how to enhance human cognition and perception. Our experimental approach is to: first, understand the users in their context as well as the potential for enhancement. Second, we create innovative interventions that provide functionality that amplifies human capabilities. And third, we empirically evaluate and quantify the enhancement that is gained by these developments. It is exciting to see how ultimately these new ubiquitous computing technologies have the potential for overcoming fundamental limitations in human perception and cognition and lead the way for creating cognitive and perceptual super powers. If we succeed to create technologies that seamlessly amplify human cognition and perception, humans augmented with these technologies will outsmart artificial intelligence.