Technology and Security

As if people weren’t dumb enough: Say hi to “artificial stupidity”

By Lucien Crowder, June 5, 2017

Human beings exhibit formidable intelligence and laughable stupidity. Much the same, it seems, can be said of artificial intelligence. But if humans and AI work together, each accentuates the other’s intelligence and compensates for the other’s stupidity—right? Quite the opposite, according to Breaking Defense: “[H]umans and AI working together are [often] stupider than the sum of their parts.”

That’s a bucketful of dumb, folks, and the problem is of particular concern to the US military, which is investing heavily in artificial intelligence as part of its third offset strategy. Artificial intelligence is meant to help the United States stay a step ahead of China and Russia—but that approach won’t get far if humans and AI obliterate each other’s smarts and synergize each other’s stupidity.

What’s the solution? Breaking Defense promises answers as it continues publishing The War Algorithm, a series on military AI.

As the coronavirus crisis shows, we need science now more than ever.

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