Since its inception in 1956, AI has had more periods of hype and disillusionment than any other technology. But H2AI and knowledge capital expert Freddie McMahon discusses how when it comes to KM, it could change the economics of everything.

Everyone knows that artificial intelligence is the dream ticket for knowledge exchange but for most, it remains no more than a fantasy. This is all about to change as technology innovation and convergence is now well positioned for human-powered AI deployment on a universal and, indeed, unifying scale.

This bold claim will happen and will happen at such a fast speed it will be truly exhilarating, liberating and rewarding for many. Once AI is pervasive, it will have changed the economics of everything as we know it today.

Conversation has been used for thousands of years as a means to exchange knowledge. Now imagine today’s human ecosystem with billions of networked people being joined in conversation by a far greater number of AI agents. This expanded ecosystem of people and AI agents conversing is the equivalent of a ‘big bang’ that accelerates and expands the knowledge universe.

Aggregated conversational flows, patterns and outcomes will drive learning and change faster and faster. As knowledge is an infinite resource, seismic shifts are inevitable as the rate of knowledge complexity, velocity and volatility increases within ever decreasing cycles.

"As knowledge is an infinite resource, seismic shifts are inevitable as the rate of knowledge complexity, velocity and volatility increases within ever decreasing cycles"

Black box AI

Since 2000, commercial research and development has been focused on converting this theory to practice. The breakthrough is known as human powered AI. Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, recently called it ‘artificial artificial intelligence’.

This significant shift in direction has been because conventional AI deployed as a ‘black-box’ has failed to deliver a universal and unifying AI solution for knowledge exchange, even though there have been some outstanding niche successes. In retrospect, black-box AI, aiming to create an artificial brain, really had little chance to succeed. Why? There are three primary reasons:

Firstly, the human brain is still not understood well enough so that it can be represented by a simple equation. Scientists are getting closer to an answer but without such an equation, how can one develop AI to replicate the human brain?

Secondly, even when a simple equation has been formulated, the technical challenges are immense. The human brain is estimated to have 100 billion nerve cells and 500 trillion synaptic connections. It is also estimated the human brain can process the equivalent of 100 trillion instructions per second. These benchmarks are just not attainable by today’s technology.

Thirdly, black-box AI does not have the equivalent of human judgement to avoid over-learning to prevent decision distortions and decay. Instinctively, humans are better placed to know when to stop learning something to avoid diminishing returns and possible contamination to their sense-making framework.

Black-box AI is the opposite as it can start with, say, a meaningful conversation, but after a while the learning excesses contaminates its reasoning. It’s quite feasible to begin a normal conversation with an AI agent, which then becomes a blithering idiot at any moment in time.

The realisation of this fundamental flaw raises both moral and ethical issues. The fear of AI agents telling lies without any inherent notion of doing right or wrong is regarded by many as a risk too far.

These explanations simply confirm what we instinctively know that the AI black-box cannot deliver a universal and unifying knowledge exchange. At best, its deployment of natural language for semantic search may become a niche success, though it has yet to find an alternative to the complexities of manually deploying meta tags within content.

Now for the good news!

The alternative AI approach for delivering a universal and unifying knowledge exchange is known as a white-box, which is where the algorithms of conversation are powered and controlled by humans.

Human powered AI enables people to script conversation and automatically generate software as a service. The rapid rise of Web 3.0 Cloud Computing means human-to-artificial intelligence (or H2AI conversations) can be conducted using billions of mobile phones and PCs. H2AI interactions can be conducted via any Cloud application or devices, including consumer robots, health devices or even smart fridges. Avatars can front these H2AI conversations and with the new generation of Avatars being a lot closer to cinematic quality, the notion of ‘smart’ AI agents working 24/7 is now feasible.

Many users that already generate Web 2.0 content, such as blogs, podcasts and videos, for instance, are expected to also build AI agents. The creation of AI agents is likely to attract many new authors because of the diversity and value of new applications. Imagine having your own AI agents working for you 24/7 as personal assistants protecting you from the mundane, as guides that narrate and orchestrate media from past special occasions, or as sales agents for your goods and as fee generating advisors.

H2AI dialogue is a more natural foundation for mass-customisation involving consumers, businesses, social networks and non-profit organisations like institutes, associations and foundations. As the market embraces smarter customer engagement through personalisation, it naturally leads to greater diversity and depth of conversation.

H2AI changes the dynamics of knowledge from illiquidity to liquidity. Knowledge, like money, means the greater the liquidity, the more stimuli, innovation and growth. But unlike money, knowledge is an infinite resource. The implications of moving billions of people from knowledge poor to knowledge rich has widespread implications for everything, especially big global issues such as poverty, health and the environment.

There is now a general consensus amongst web futurists, like Nick Carr, that Web 4.0 is about AI complementing humans and Web 5.0 is about AI supplanting humans. H2AI delivers both Web 4.0 and Web 5.0.

By extending our human ecosystem with a far greater number of AI agents, it will transform the dynamics of knowledge exchange through conversation.