A N A L Y S I S

Responsible Innovation

Adapting to a cognitive
partnership

Governance, Ethics & AI Systems. Building on published foresight research for IBM Research Center, and European Regulatory Forums.

    Cognitive partners

     

    While society has progressively extended human mobility and perception through automation, advances in cognitive information processing have opened an entirely new scope of societal possibility. New abilities to transform prevailing thinking patterns, become more effective in coping with an abundant flow of information, and in adapting to the pervasive demands of cultural and technological innovation. In this view, there are important questions as to whether individuals,  enterprises and institutions are equipped to think dynamically about continuous information production and the complex systems and interactions that emerge from it. Is it time that we extend our relationship with automation, and wholly embrace technology as our cognitive partner?

    As advances in high-performance computing address systemic challenges with colossal capacity, multi-step processes, pattern recognition, extended time-scales and superpositions, brute force analytics and machine learning will shift toward full scale problem solving and synthetic intelligence. With more embodied technology interaction, human effectiveness will likely increase from decades and years, to months and weeks and notions of intelligence will dissolve as we become co-processors of information at a phenomenal scale.

     

    Silicon Valley 'Partnership on AI' ecosystem, California
    Early governance frameworks exploring human-technology coordination, ethics and adaptive intelligence systems.

       

      Liberated process

       

      Two key evolutions in recent history have contributed to this redefining of the organization and processing of knowledge. The first, is the shift from literary-based genres to systems of knowledge, where practically everything can be understood in a networked, interrelated context. The second is the shift in information processing, transforming static thinking modes into a continuous interpretation of environmental signals and data flows. The role of mediating technology has transitioned beyond the enablement of connectivity and information transfer, to cognitive and sensory assistance in the very definitions of information, and in the co-creation of solutions for adaptive life.

      Techno-social environments of all kinds are today witnessing profound transformations in international communication space with the liberations of many social, working and education processes. Over the last two decades, perception, automated reasoning and argumentation have become core activities in AI and machine learning, processing vast expert knowledge from interdisciplinary sources. Intelligent architectures, supported by increasingly distributed computational systems, can more effectively put knowledge to work and support increasingly adaptive forms of coordination and decision-making. The nature of education is evolving dramatically, with unprecedented access to information, mental storage interacting with the mobile internet, and adaptive learning modelling and provisioning all aspects of information flow.

       

      Throughout ethics, security, health and many other concerns, governance alliances, deliberative forums and ethical frameworks have increasingly emerged, exploring the societal implications of new cognitive technologies. While state governance can be a catalyst in funding innovation research, its is now large-scale data and intelligence ecosystems that have more comprehensive and practical views on global and cultural scenarios, particularly concerning human-technology interaction.



      Stakeholders, Opportunities, and Risks in Responsible Innovation (source: Ethics of Data)

      Learning to adapt

       

      As this new global infrastructure becomes the medium for polity, traditional governance constructs are increasingly challenged by adaptive technological environments. Public and private sector cooperation can better combine data and high technology for answers and solutions, supporting the adaptation of institutions, with cultural revolutions in cognitive and symbiotic technology. These paradigm shifts should in turn, be countered with a robust multi-agent flow of social deliberation in the new public sphere. Today, in high-risk, highly networked economies, state forums for responsible innovation are already underway. Such concepts can be extended across disciplines, beyond pure economics and environmental concerns, to establish forums for responsible social innovation.

      Enhanced knowledge structures and response capabilities are emerging from the progressive restructuring and re-tooling of societies and organizations. A partnership with cognitive technology. Beyond automation, toward interaction, insight and inter-agent human-technology environments. Reducing the limitations of human bias while expanding collective insight, sharing daily challenges, and more effectively probing global systems and resources. As informational, spatial and immersive connectivity intensify and transform our notions of civilization, entirely new concepts of freedom and ethics will emerge. It is time we face the real implications of a new cognitive partnership, and learn how we can possibly adapt.

       

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      © 10 Sensor LLC, 2018-2021 USA, International 
      NOTES: Period: 2016-2022 | Language: English | Conflict of Interest: None | | Media & AI Usage: c/o 10sensor
      References: Stakeholders, Opportunities, and Risks in Responsible Innovation, Ethics of Data, 2022 | 'System', Siskin, 2017 | 'AI Ethics & Responsibility', Watson Research Center, IBM, 2018