What’s AI (Intelligence Augmentation)?

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Intelligence augmentation (AI) is the deliberate enhancement of human intelligence using some technological means, such as eugenics, gene therapy, brain-computer interfaces, nootropics (smart drugs), neuroengineering, or other means that they have not yet been invented. Occasionally, the term is used to refer to external aids such as pen and paper or the Internet, but more frequently it refers to permanent brain modifications that enhance human intelligence. Intelligence augmentation is generally considered a futuristic technology that doesn’t exist yet, but could do so in the coming decades.

The term “intelligence enhancement” is often used interchangeably with “intelligence amplification,” and both are abbreviated as AI. These forms of human enhancement contrast with artificial intelligence, or artificial intelligence, whereby intelligence would be produced in an entirely synthetic form. Some thinkers have suggested that humans’ AI will always remain more advanced than AI, because any level of AI could be applied to humans to enhance their capabilities. Other thinkers have argued that AI technologies would not necessarily increase all human intelligence, and that AI may actually progress faster than human intelligence increases.

Intelligence augmentation can be viewed in several contexts: as a challenging technological goal, as a humanitarian goal, as a natural next step in human evolution, as a moral and ethical issue to be considered, as a risk to the future of humanity, or as an ongoing socio-technological phenomenon. There is evidence that average human intelligence has increased slowly over the last century, something called the Flynn effect. This effect has recently leveled off, and while its source is unknown, various scientists attribute improved nutrition and cognitive stimulation as the cause.

True AI would require somehow remodeling the human brain or closely interfacing it with computers. It seems unlikely that simple drugs will be enough to substantially enhance human intelligence, although some futurists think it might be possible. While there has been no progress in actually improving human intelligence, there has been progress on the underlying technologies, which when advanced to a threshold point could be used to attempt to increase intelligence. This includes the brain-computer interface, which has been used to help patients move prosthetic limbs, and gene therapy, which becomes more viable as gene sequencing costs fall and our understanding of potential side effects increases. .

Intelligence enhancement is an ethically thorny area, connected to the question of human enhancement in general. Should humans be allowed to develop technologies that they can use to substantially improve themselves? Some futurists who call themselves transhumanists hold this view. An example would be Nick Bostrom, a philosopher at the University of Oxford, author of articles in favor of human betterment. Others, called bioconservatives, are against the idea, calling it too dangerous or morally unjust. An example would be environmentalist Bill McKibben, author of the book Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age.

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