The Re-Conception of AI: Beyond Artificial, and Beyond Intelligence

The original conception of artificial intelligence (old-AI) was as a simulation of human intelligence. That has proven to be an ill-judged quest. It has led too many researchers repetitively down too many blind alleys, and embodies many threats to individuals, societies and economies. To increase value and reduce harm, it is necessary to re-conceptualise the field. A review is undertaken of old-AI’s flavours, operational definitions and important exemplars. The heart of the problem is argued to be an inappropriate focus on achieving substitution for human intelligence, either by replicating it in silicon or by inventing something functionally equivalent to it. Humankind instead needs its artefacts to deliver intellectual value different from human intelligence. By devising complementary artefact intelligence (CAI), and combining it with human intelligence, the mission becomes the delivery of augmented intelligence (new-AI). These alternative conceptions can serve the needs of the human race far better than either human or artefact intelligence can alone. The proposed re-conception goes a step further. Inferencing and decision-making lay the foundations for action. Old-AI has tended to compartmentalise discussion, with robotics considered as though it were a parallel or at best overlapping field of endeavour. Combining the intellectual with the physical leads to broader conceptions of far greater value: complementary artefact capability (CAC) and augmented capability (AC). These enable the re-orientation of research to avoid dead-ends and misdirected designs, and deliver techniques that serve real-world needs and amplify humankind’s capacity for responsible innovation.