THE HUMAN FACTOR

The drumbeat for Artificial Intelligence is deafening. But when you look at the skinny, it all boils down to IFTTT. Doesn’t it? There is also this big overhang called the Big Data that seems to propose that the entire world’s knowledge is contained in a server somewhere from where the computational binary codes have determined the essence of life and death. Not so, it seems when you really look at it hard enough. And then you realize AI is about making a machine do the IFTTT with a select few variables. And that the machine does well. Let me give you an example that everyone will tout as their aha moment and immediately subjugate their humanness to the unfailing virtues of the AI. But hold on a bit, friend, hold on!

Can we translate the meaning of the human essence into a machine? Nope, not by any standard. Ah, but they say, in time, in time and soon. To that I am compelled to say, not so fast young Turk, not so fast. 

To give credit to the function of a machine working through the AI code of conduct, one needs to look at the Aircraft Autopilot for example. The entire premise of the Autopilot is based on four variables; Lift, Weight, Thrust and Drag. Compute those variables and all three X, Y, and Z-axis are easily manageable. At takeoff, the thrust outweighs both the parasitic drag and the weight drag on the aircraft. At Cruise, the lift created by the wings equals the induced drag and the weight of the aircraft. At descent, the thrust is diminished to allow the other mentioned forces to act accordingly and bring the aircraft transitioning to the landing phase. But what happens if a sudden force of moderate turbulence is applied to the aircraft? The Autopilot automatically disconnects, so the human can take over to override impact from the sudden change. Any sudden change in the wind parameters would raise the specter of a “Ding, Ding” followed by “wind shear” if the aircraft was so equipped with such a hardwired coded algorithm. So, if there are only a few, finite, known and calculated variables, the machine language codes well and delivers with flying colors. Add an additional insult to the quiet world of the AI and, then, you know who is the boss.  Autopilots need human managers who are fully prepped with nuances of machine shortcomings and failures. Sometimes, however, we the humans can take the autopilot’s beseeching warnings and hit the ocean or earth, with a ferocity of momentum and wonder, what gives? Humans too are fallible. That’s how we learn.

Remember HAL9000 from the 2001 Space Odyssey? We haven’t yet achieved full subservience to the red dot. Perhaps the example of the autonomous land vehicle crashing into pedestrians and fences itself is a reminder that machine-learned machines need to stay functional in the machine-machine world. Humans are unpredictable and therefore their drive for the unexpected is wrought with calamities. Touting the success of the Autopilot in the airplane and the boat and the cruise control in the car and comparing that to the wide world of a multitude of variables is hubris in a nutshell. The wide world has many rules from the Quantum mechanics to the Newtonian Laws to the Flows of Fluid and Thermal dynamics, to the continually in the motion of the living breathing planet, its aching tectonics, its atmospheric lifts, and its restless oceans. To punch in all those variables into the artificiality of a machine and expect it to perform with the agility and grace of multitasking, parallel processing human brain is asking for, way too much.

Reversing course from the machine to the human again, there are some who believe that AI will replace humans in healthcare? Perhaps the best we will get will be predictive analytics with percentages and potentials, but not what is needed to help save the human from a malfunctioning code in their genes. Even delving into reading X-Rays and diagnosing disease from the images is based on the IFTTT. Feed-in a million X-Ray images and code them with the disease accordingly and then let the AI figure out the diagnosis of the presented image. The missing context that humans rely upon is well, missing. The “mass” in the lung could be benign or malignant, it could be infectious or a fungal ball, it could be scar tissue or rampant virus, it could be fluid or the beginning of something really malicious. Context matters. Someone would say we can code for that as well. Ok then how about the overall state of the human being, one asks? We can code for that as well. Ok, how about human feelings? We can do that as well, by coding their facial characteristics? Ok, how about their fears and the subsurface emotions coursing their veins? Even humans can’t figure that out? Actually, with a little communication, we can. But one gets the message that the many existing variables that prevent the false negatives and the false positives from embracing the predictions by subjugating themselves to the zero is nigh impossible. But the trials and the beat will go on. We might succeed one day, but not today.

There is something to be said about the human factor. It might be messy, it might be chaotic, it might be fractured, it might also be grand as well or it might be the cause of a lot of human follies and the start of a learning process to make better that which is flawed and that, as they say, is the greatest of gifts contained within the 3-pound flesh solidly protected by its osseous protective confines. From the powered flight of the Wright Brothers to the behemoth million-ton flying machines controlled by a few levers upfront is a long way in hundred-plus years. The pace of progress accelerates as mundane tasks are relegated to the machines with the IFTTT and the human brain conceives ideas for the future! We live on ideas. We grow with ideas. We are the ideas that make the world go around.

“Second star to the right and straight on ‘til morning!’”

Steady as she goes!