23 things artificially intelligent computers can do better/faster/cheaper than you can

Predict the weather

Read an X-ray

Play Go

Correct spelling

Figure out the P&L of a large company

Pick a face out of a crowd

Count calories

Fly a jet across the country

Maintain the temperature of your house

Book a flight

Give directions

Create an index for a book

Play Jeopardy

Weld a metal seam

Trade stocks

Place online ads

Figure out what book to read next

Water a plant

Monitor a premature newborn

Detect a fire

Play poker

Read documents in a lawsuit

Sort packages

 

If you've seen enough movies, you've probably bought into the homunculus model of AI--that it's in the future and it represents a little mechanical man in a box, as mysterious in his motivations as we are.

 

The future of AI is probably a lot like the past: it nibbles. Artificial intelligence does a job we weren't necessarily crazy about doing anyway, it does it quietly, and well, and then we take it for granted. No one complained when their thermostat took over the job of building a fire, opening the grate, opening a window, rebuilding a fire. And no one complained when the computer found 100 flights faster and better than we ever could.

 

But the system doesn't get tired, it keeps nibbling. Not with benign or mal intent, but with a focus on a clearly defined task.

 

This can't help but lead to unintended consequences, enormous when they happen to you, and mostly small in the universal scheme of things. Technology destroys the perfect and then it enables the impossible.

 

The question each of us has to ask is simple (but difficult): What can I become quite good at that's really difficult for a computer to do one day soon? How can I become so resilient, so human and such a linchpin that shifts in technology won't be able to catch up?

 

It was always important, but now it's urgent.

 

This piece first appeared here.