The magic on display in the growing family tree of LLMs—before and beyond OpenAI’s ChatGPT—is astonishing. In these early stages, we’ll continue to collectively find our footing with AI, but the path is there to reconfigure how we work and live.
That term itself—AI—has also been on my mind. As I’ve been so focused in recent years on AI projects, I've found myself questioning whether using that moniker—"Artificial Intelligence"—may actually be holding us back in some ways.
To start: has anything been celebrated—or preferred—for being artificial? Artificial food coloring. Artificial flowers. Artificial respiration. If so, it feels like a rare exception.
I believe the current language of Artificial Intelligence has somewhat misled us and, in the wider culture, painted an ominous view of an AI that develops sinister intent at odds with our natural intelligence and natural interests.
To me, there’s a more fitting descriptor of what's taking shape that better captures these tools' impact on humanity: Amplified Intelligence.
Same acronym, but more accurate. Advancements like LLMs are amplifying the abilities and productivity of humans. And, yes, it will amplify our mistakes and misunderstandings as much as our achievements and insights, but that just reflects and accelerates our growth as humans.
What do you think about Amplified Intelligence (AI) as a term? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below
Roth Goyal - Dir engineering at Netflix
I’ve been referring to it as “Augmented Intelligence” to distinguish between how we can be inspired and aided by it, not replaced.
Justin Jin
Reid Hoffman how’s “augmented intelligence”? As we begin to combine human/machine systems the potential to leverage the best of both worlds exists!
Bruce Bixler - linked in guru
Reid Hoffman I use "Accelerated Intelligence" since that is what it does! It accelerates results.
Tatyana Mamut - tech innovator
Amplified means “more” and “higher” — which is not accurate. Computer AI is not necessarily more intelligent or at a higher level of intelligence; it is simply produced through code generated functions in a non-living system.
I’d stick with Artificial because Amplified Intelligence could apply to supplements/lifestyle changes that enhance natural (organic) intelligence. Also we need to understand that we are entering the full cyborg era, where human amplifications of intelligence will be a mix of natural (organic) and artificial (inorganic) sources. Distinguishing between these will be important and losing this distinction now may lead to bad unintended consequences
Ivan Kaye
Augmented Intelligence is more appropriate - as chatgpt or AI Is not intelligent - but does augment
Amplified intelligence implies AI has intelligence - which implies a “live being” which is a debate of its own !!!
Krystal Lucado
Great question! My perspective follows definitions:
Intelligence (noun): the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations: REASON
Artificial (adjective): humanly contrived often on a natural model: MAN MADE
Amplify (verb): to expand (something, such as a statement): to make larger or greater (as in amount, importance, or intensity): INCREASE
I like Amplify for a couple of reasons:
1. Amplify is a verb describing an action which is more consistent with the act of AI.
2. Artificial is an adjective describing intelligence in a passive sense inconsistent with the potential of AI.
3. The word “artificial” while culturally acceptable in transactional activities (luxury goods/nails/hair), retains a negative connotation leading to bias.
That being said, I do prefer Amplify Intelligence in the present tense rather than past tense, given the potential of AI +HI = NI
Rohit Jain
Jobs will become irrelevant as ultimately AI, LLMs and other advancements will lead to radical abundance of everything...
Amplified intelligence therefore more appropriate
Kevin Hodges
How about “aggregate intelligence” is more accurate. It reminds me of the early internet days when many of the popular sites were aggregators for news, pop culture, sports, etc. It also seems pretty accurate since there is less new information being created by AI; rather, it’s collecting the vast and disparate elements of the web and commodifying them for our advantage.
Joe Edwards
I like “aggregate intelligence” to imply
1. This stuff is built on a corpus of human knowledge
2. It’s a superpower, but just as an aggregate group of humans can be led in non-ideal directions or produce subpar results, these new tools can as well.
