Europeans Would Consider Augmentation

Depends on what you mean by augmentation,   we already pay for lots of it already.   Health vs intelligence, vs requested assistance?    Inevitable if properly demonstrated.

Majority of Europeans Would Consider Human Augmentation, Study Finds
The Next Web
Thomas Macaulay

A survey of more than 14,000 people in 16 countries by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky found most Europeans would consider technological augmentation to their bodies, with 81% of Italians saying they would mull this, versus 33% of those in the U.K. Older respondents were more supportive of augmentation that would enhance their health, while younger persons were more interested in augmenting their appearance and sporting abilities. Nearly half (48%) of men surveyed considered human augmentation "completely" or "mostly" acceptable, compared to roughly a third (38%) of women surveyed. All supporters prioritized improving physical health and quality of life via augmentation, yet 69% expected only wealthy individuals would be able to afford such enhancements, and 88% fear their augmented bodies could be exploited by cybercriminals.  ... "

Augmented Intelligence, the New AI

Hardly new.   Computing has always augmented people doing computational and logical work.   Its just that this work has now expanded to other formally human and animal insight.   Like learning, pattern observation, forecasting, risk consideration, strategy,  even innovation.  Not all of these all the time.  but things we would mark as clever and innovative.  Still augmenting, even drifting into elements of the autonomous,   but not complete in every context.   Our human intelligence needs to continue to monitor the augmentation.

Augmented Intelligence is the New Artificial Intelligence   by 7wData
Computers are getting cleverer and increasingly inventive, offering terrific prospects to improve the human condition. There’s a call to rethink Artificial Intelligence as Augmented Intelligence, to stress the capability of people working with AI instead of being replaced by AI.

In present times, AI specialists, data scientists, designers, and engineers explore how we can function close by machines, when we should enable machines to make psychological decisions, and how all of society can gain from the productive and monetary benefits guaranteed by innovation in AI.  ... " 

Augmented Analytics

For now not replacing but rather augmenting people.    Unlike the article I would say this has been around for a long time. 

Augmented Analytics Drives Next Wave of AI, Machine Learning, BI

Business intelligence will move beyond dashboards, and AI and machine learning will become easier for less skilled workers as augmented analytics are embedded into platforms.
Enterprises struggling to get their data management and machine learning practices up to speed in an era of more and more data may be in for a nice surprise. After years of bending under the weight of more data, more need for insights, and a shortage of data science talent, augmented analytics is coming to the rescue. What's more, it could also help with putting machine learning into production, something that has been an issue for many enterprises.

Identified as a major trend by Gartner at its Symposium event last year, augmented analytics has been around for several years already, according to Rita Sallam, distinguished research VP and Gartner fellow. But in recent years the concept has expanded to encompass automation of many of the processes that are required by the entire data pipeline. That includes tasks such as profiling, cataloging, storage, data management, generating insights, assisting with data science and machine learning models, and operationalization, according to Sallam, who was set to present a session about augmented analytics at the now postponed Gartner Data and Analytics Summit that has been rescheduled for September ... "

Where is Cortana Going?

Long time follower of the concept of an 'assistant'.   Have played with Cortana in a number of forms.  TheVerge does a good update below on where it is and they may be going today. Its all about augmentation, now in a number of contexts, including the home an office.  Believe they could do more with stronger office connections. 

Cortana isn’t dead, but it’s no longer an Alexa competitor   By Tom Warren @tomwarren in TheVerge

Cortana started off life as a digital assistant for Windows Phone, before making its way to Windows 10, iOS, and Android. With Windows Phone dead and very few people using Cortana on a PC, Microsoft has made the difficult decision to give up competing with Alexa and Google Assistant. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed earlier this year that the company no longer sees Cortana as a competitor to those other digital assistants, and that it’s embracing the idea of having rivals on its platform. We’re now starting to see how that will work, and what it means for the future of Cortana.  .... "  

Speeding up Biological Imaging

An example of the sharing of methodology to create algorithms.  Note also the replacement and augmentation of human process.

Researchers Use Algorithm From Netflix Challenge to Speed Up Biological Imaging 
Optical Society of America

Scientists at the Ecole Normale Superieure in France have repurposed an algorithm developed for Netflix's 2009 movie preference prediction challenge for high-speed acquisition of classical Raman spectroscopy biological-tissue images. The researchers demonstrated imaging speeds of a few tens of seconds for an image that would usually take minutes to obtain, and they think sub-second speeds could be realized in the future. Said Ecole Normale Superieure's Hilton de Aguiar, "We combined compressive imaging with fast computer algorithms that provide the kind of images clinicians use to diagnose patients, but rapidly and without laborious manual post-processing." The researchers replaced costly, slow cameras used in conventional setups with a spatial light modulator, which selects groups of wavelengths identified by a single-pixel detector, compressing images as they are captured. This allowed the team to use a portion of the data typically required for non-invasive Raman spectroscopy, and employ the Netflix algorithm to fill in the missing information .... "

Digital Assistants at Work

Not unexpected that we will see these kinds of capabilities to augment people in the workplace.

Digital workplace technologies promise a personal digital assistant for all employees PRNewswire

ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace Archetype Report looks at how the services of 22 vendors fit into the business models of five types of clients

STAMFORD, Conn., March 7, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- As enterprises move toward digital workplace technologies, all of their employees will be able to have their own personal digital assistants, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The ISG Provider Lens™ Digital Workplace Archetype Report sees enterprises adopting such virtual assistants, including advanced agents that can book meetings on behalf of employees or suggest product changes based on end-user chat sessions. Digital workplace technologies can also offer remote device support through augmented or virtual reality and can provide smart offices and meeting rooms, among other benefits.

"With digital and automation technologies, having a personal assistant is no longer a luxury that only senior executives can afford," said Esteban Herrera, partner and global leader of ISG Research.

"Modern digital workplace technologies provide every worker with a personal digital assistant that can take over mundane tasks to help the user explore value-added work and advance their careers."

In addition to automation, digital workplace technologies can assist enterprises with the consumerization of IT environments, the report said. Employees who have long used smartphones now expect cloud- and app-based services in the workplace, and automated solutions like chatbots connect with channels like Amazon Alexa, Microsoft Cortana and Google Assistant to provide a consumer-like experience at work.  ...." 

Google Assistant Everywhere

Some of the earliest AI work we examined was in using 'Assistant' tech to augment typical work.  So when an employee messaged or wrote documents they would get a separate 'column' of searches, suggestions. links, supporting ideas.   The early capabilities made this annoying to many. But now we can do much better.  Seems Google is at it again.   Ans see the fundamental connection with the idea of a 'conversation',  a natural place.  Here just an example, much more at the link.

Building the Google Assistant on phones for everyone, everywhere
Manuel Bronstein,  Vice President of Product, Google Assistant, in Google Blog

In most countries around the world, phones are the primary way people interact with the Google Assistant. Whether you’re using an Android phone, an iPhone or a phone that’s running Android 9 Pie (Go edition) or KaiOS, the Assistant takes advantage of our phones’ capabilities so you can get help while you’re on the go.

This week, we’re at Mobile World Congress, announcing more phones with a dedicated Google Assistant button and sharing new ways people around the globe can use phones to get help from the Assistant where they want it.

Assistance where you want it, Bringing the Assistant to mobile apps

There are lots of ways the Assistant can help right within some of the apps we use every day. For example, since we launched the Assistant in Google Maps, drivers in the U.S. are getting hands-free help with directions, making calls and listening to music. We’re also seeing more than 15 times the number of queries asking for the Assistant’s help to send messages and read incoming texts out loud compared to before, when you could only use your voice for a few things. In the coming weeks, we’ll bring the Assistant to Google Maps in all Assistant phone languages.

Accessing the Google Assistant in Messages

Conversations are another place where the Google Assistant can lend a helping hand. Over the coming months for English users around the globe, Messages will start showing suggestions so you can get more information from the Google Assistant about movies, restaurants and weather. The Messages app uses on-device AI to offer suggestion chips relevant to your conversation, helping you easily find and share information as you chat one-on-one with your best friend, or in a group chat with your entire family. You can tap on the suggestion chip to learn more from your Assistant, and if you find the info is helpful, you can decide if you want to share that information back into your conversation. If you don’t share that information, the other person won’t see it.  ... "

Honda Smart Intersection View

Clever, we are starting to see better collaboration between people and machines.  Here a good example.  Will kind of car augmentation delay complete self-driving?  Note this is now in test, and requires the intersection to become 'smart' as well by adding infrastructure.

Honda's smart intersection tells drivers what's around the corner
This intersection sees more than you or your car can.

By Roberto Baldwin, @strngwys in Engadget

Augmentation Fallacy?

Interesting piece, which uses the chess example to understand what AI can do now, and how it might be used to improve the workforce.   In the past the use of Chess as an 'unsolveable' problem for AI was common.  Now it rarely mentioned for business application.  Business does not need better chess playing.  But it is noted here that Chess was described to the solver by providing its relatively simple rules.   Can we the same for business by showing it business rules?   

We can model business rules with methods like BPM,  process modeling and process examples.  But there is still considerable probabilistic risk, dynamic and changing context involved.   So the complexity is considerable.  So it helps to understand process, use it as a goal setting direction, but not expecting a specific solution.  What is better now, is to augment the process, and thus the people involved, by inserting machine learning methods where they provide the most value,  into a business process model.

In past attempts at AI, we hoped to model businesses by large numbers of rules.   But discovered soon that these were brittle and needed frequent updating.  Thats my definition of near term view of near term 'augmentation', or people or people as part of process.  Perhaps some day we will solve the business process more broadly.

AI and the ‘Augmentation’ Fallacy
By Philipp Gerbert  in SloanMIT Review

The fundamental disruption introduced by AlphaZero’s hyperlearning in the chess world can teach business executives about AI.  Chess was often mention in past arguments about the use of AI in business, but is rarely used today.  

 Artificial Intelligence Lessons From the Chessboard

Many pundits, academics, and economists advise business executives on how artificial intelligence (AI) will augment human performance in the workplace. Some conclude that human-machine interactions will involve machines providing scale and speed with humans offering insights and training data.

Despite its broad appeal, the assessment that human-machine interactions are, and will continue to be, exclusively about augmenting humans or teams of humans and machines is shortsighted and underestimates the transformative potential of AI.

Some machines are already beginning to learn in virtualized (at least partially) environments with neither human training nor data input from the real world. This process, known as hyperlearning, allows systems to learn at machine speed and develop novel solutions in specific settings, frequently involving unsupervised learning and reinforcement learning algorithms. Often these systems use adversarial or complementary AI engines that play off against each other, generating virtual training data in the process. Companies in different industries are already creating the environment for such hyperlearning systems, raising the question: What should executives expect from human-machine interactions in the coming years?

When IBM’s Deep Blue defeated chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov in 1997, it was the first time a machine beat a human world champion in a chess match. It is also an example of how human-machine dynamics can evolve, providing interesting insights for business applications. Chess players first began using AI systems to enhance their own performance, using computers to train for tournaments. Then, advanced chess tournaments emerged, which allowed players to use computers during otherwise conventional competitions. The computational firepower of machines — enhanced by libraries of openings and endgames — complemented the strong strategic planning and refined position assessment of humans, augmenting existing approaches to playing chess. ... " 

Seeking Co-Creativity

Well of course, a kind of creativity augmentation.  But as the article suggests, Co-creativity takes it yet beyond.  Who/What initiates, develops, delivers?   Fascinating view of this.   Part of the intelligence included has to be: How we we best co-create?  Not sure humans have this intelligence yet.

Evaluating Creativity in Computational Co-Creative Systems 

Tech Xplore

Researchers at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte (UNC Charlotte) and the University of Sydney in Australia have developed a framework for evaluating creativity in co-creative systems in which humans and computers collaborate on creative tasks. There are three main strategies by which the role of computers in creative systems can be characterized: fully autonomous systems, creativity support tools, and co-creative systems. The team focused on co-creative systems, in which computers and humans collaborate with one another to produce shared creative works. The researchers define a co-creative system as an "interaction between at least one [artificial intelligence] agent and at least one human where they take action based on the response of their partner and their own conceptualization of creativity during the co-creative task." They determined that compared to autonomous systems, co-creative systems benefit from human interaction, introducing human insight and perception of the creative product during the process. ... " 

Intelligent Automation Starting Simply

ts not general intelligence, its intelligence that augments and automates business process.  Including the design of that process.  RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a useful start.  It may include advanced machine learning capabilities to address specific subproblems, but it is often useful to start with simpler elements.

Opinion Looking beyond RPA to intelligent automation     By Wayne Butterfield

The automation journey can be long and arduous for many organizations. Beginning with robotic process automation allows organizations to immediately find opportunities to increase productivity and accuracy in the back office. This is, however, just the first stage of a process that can increase operational efficiency and create even more value across the organization.

This stage is defined by technologies that build on RPA: intelligent automation. These technologies provide a structured output, which is exactly what RPA bots require in order to be at their most efficient.

Intelligent automation technologies provide the following features:  ... "

Augmentarians

And on the same topic.  How much is it augmenting, diminishing, replacing jobs and how much is the replacement of component skills?

On AI and Jobs, We Are All Augmentarians Now:

Tom Davenport writes in Forbes:

For a couple of days this week, I attended the EmTech NEXT conference at MIT, which is organized by MIT Technology Review. The focus of the event was that fabled idea “The Future of Work,” and if you are on the side of the humans, the future seems pretty bright. Virtually every speaker (MIT folks, AI and robotics leaders) came out in favor of augmentation over automation. They say that AI and robots won’t take our jobs, but rather augment them by doing the things we humans don’t do so well..

I must say that I was a bit surprised that augmentation has become the consensus view among experts. That wasn’t the case three years ago, when Julia Kirby and I were writing the book that became Only Humans Need Apply. At that time, most of the bets were on automation eliminating lots of human jobs. The Oxford researchers Carl Benedikt Frey and Michael Osborne had just published their study on “The Future of Employment,” which predicted that “47% of total U.S. employment is at risk.” Martin Ford had published the book Rise of the Robots, which basically suggested that human workers were toast. The McKinsey Global institute did a similar analysis to the Oxford researchers, and concluded that the “number”—the percentage of automatable jobs —was 45%. This was the heyday of automation fearmongering, and it all received a lot of publicity  .... "

Death of Supply Chain Management

The death of? No, but lots of new augmentations popping up.

The Death of Supply Chain Management in 7WData

The supply chain is the heart of a company’s operations. To make the best decisions, managers need access to real-time data about their supply chain, but the limitations of legacy technologies can thwart the goal of end-to-end transparency. However, those days may soon be behind us. New digital technologies that have the potential to take over supply chain management entirely are disrupting traditional ways of working. Within 5-10 years, the supply chain function may be obsolete, replaced by a smoothly running, self-regulating utility that optimally manages end-to-end work flows and requires very little human intervention. With a digital foundation in place, companies can capture, analyze, integrate, easily access, and interpret high quality, real-time data – data that fuels process automation, predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and robotics, the technologies that will soon take over supply chain management. .... " 

Brain Computer Interfaces

Could these  methods be used beyond the hands-free enhancement?   Could they be used to replace or enhance human interaction when mentally disabled?   Presented on the site as technical augmentation, for computing platforms, but why not more generally?   The ultimate kind of augmented reality.

Extensive details at the Neurable site.

"...Neurable builds brain-computer interfaces for next-generation computing platforms ...

Imagine your mind in mixed reality. ... 

Neurable’s vision is to create a world without limitations. Our revolutionary brain-computer interface allows people to control software and devices using only their brain activity.

Immersive computing requires a new approach to human-computer interaction. Neurable designs software and solutions that function as a natural extension of our brains, creating new possibilities for human empowerment.

Our approach is science-driven and cross disciplinary, incorporating elements of neuroscience, biology, statistics, machine learning and design to create the ultimate user interface. With Neurable, mixed reality can finally achieve its full potential.  ...."

Mind Reading, Hands-free Augmentation

A long term goal, hands-free interaction with the Internet.   I got a demo if this kind of thing a decade ago, and it didn't really work.  Is it here now?  Ideal use to drive an assistant.  The ultimate augmentation?

Mind-reading headset lets you Google just with your thoughts
A mind-reading device can answer questions in your head. It works by picking up signals sent from your brain when you think about saying something    By Chelsea Whyte

SILENTLY think of a question and I will answer it. That might sound like a magic trick, but it is the promise of AlterEgo, a headset that lets you speak to a computer without ever uttering a sound. It’s not quite a mind reader, but it is close.

The device brings us a step closer to a world where we can interact seamlessly with machines using only our thoughts. AlterEgo’s creators believe that rather than embarrassingly saying things like “OK Google” or “Hey Siri” and then …"

And more on this   ....

Mind-reading tech is here (and more useful than you think!)  in Computerworld 
Reading brain waves was useless until A.I. got involved. Now mind reading has real-world, practical applications.      By Mike Elgan ..... "

See also the company Neurable for an example of potential implementations ...

HBR: Getting Value from Machine Learning

Makes a very obvious case.    That has existed since the beginning of computing.  Yet still a good one to repeat.  Systems must be easy enough to use.  And then actually used, to make them valuable.  Of course when you add in some level of autonomy, with a clearly measurable value, that helps.   One way to do that is to plug them into a known and measurable business process.   You can show the value of it being better, faster, or cheaper, directly.  Augmentation of people and processes is best.  Making the method automatically considered and even applied.  We did it many times.  Good example of project management below. 

Getting Value from Machine Learning Isn’t About Fancier Algorithms — It’s About Making It Easier to Use    By Ben Schreck, Max Kanter, Kalyan Veeramachaneni, Sanjeev Vohra, Rajendra Prasad  in the HBR

Machine learning can drive tangible business value for a wide range of industries — but only if it is actually put to use. Despite the many machine learning discoveries being made by academics, new research papers showing what is possible, and an increasing amount of data available, companies are struggling to deploy machine learning to solve real business problems. In short, the gap for most companies isn’t that machine learning doesn’t work, but that they struggle to actually use it.

How can companies close this execution gap? In a recent project we illustrated the principles of how to do it. We used machine learning to augment the power of seasoned professionals — in this case, project managers — by allowing them to make data-driven business decisions well in advance. And in doing so, we demonstrated that getting value from machine learning is less about cutting-edge models, and more about making deployment easier.  .... " 

Changing the Face of Retail

Not enough detail thoughts in this CustomerThink piece, but surely we will be doing increased automation and thus augmentation of how we buy and sell.    In part depends on how we define AI. Points here are worth considering and preparing for.

How AI Is Changing The Face Of Retail Industry   by Ankit Singh

Who doesn’t want to have a blissful shopping experience? I think everybody counts in this list, but unluckily the very few get the real blessing while shopping, whether it is the online or offline mode of shopping. Many shoppers prefer to opt for brick and mortar shopping to avoid the horror of the unbearable shopping experience borne by a few unlucky chaps in online shopping, but the busy schedule, demanding lifestyle are two of the major barriers for opting the offline shopping mode, because it is not possible for everyone to indulge in shopping keeping the other important tasks at a bay. On the other hand, the online shopping experience is not always pleasing and can turn into an unforgettable pain, since it always does not deliver what it shows, because as a shopper, you cannot feel the color, texture or get the feel of the product through online shopping, which is the prime reason users prefer an offline shopping mode on online.

Why AI Is Must for Your Retail Business

--- 85% of Customer Interactions will be managed by Artificial Intelligence in Retail by 2020, a report from Gartner. ---

No doubt, online shopping is time-saving and convenient enough, but the loopholes attached to its existence, make it lose its charm, but now there is a bigger turn has been marked with the invasion of Augmented Reality in the retail industry. The emergence of Augmented Reality is nothing new to the users, and it has been experienced well in the Pokemon Go, wherein users were highly engaged and experienced the true taste of virtual reality through their Smartphones, in the same way, AI has made a revolution in the retail sector and is going to surprise the shoppers and the businesses further with its unique inventions. .... "