Responsible Innovation
Adapting to a cognitive partnership

Policy Research

Cognitive partners

While society at large has progressively enhanced sense and mobility through automation, advances in cognitive information processing have generated an entirely new scope of potential. New abilities to transform prevailing thinking patterns, become more effective in coping with an abundant flow of information, and in adapting to the pervasive demands of cultural and technological innovation. In this view, there are important questions as to whether individuals,  enterprises and institutions are equipped to think dynamically about continuous information production and the complex systems and interactions that emerge from it. Is it time that we extend our relationship with automation, and wholly embrace technology as our cognitive partner?

As advances in high-performance computing address systemic challenges with colossal capacity, multi-step processes, pattern recognition, extended time-scales and superpositions, brute force analytics and machine learning will shift toward full scale problem solving and synthetic intelligence. With more embodied technology interaction, human effectiveness will likely increase from decades and years, to months and weeks and notions of intelligence will dissolve as we become co-processors of information at phenomenal scale.

Liberated process

Two key evolutions in recent history have contributed to this redefining of the organization and processing of knowledge. The first, is the shift from literary-based genres to system-based genres, where practically everything can be understood in a networked, interrelated context. The second is the shift in information processing, transforming static thinking modes into a continuous dynamic scanning of environmental data. The role of mediating technology has transitioned  beyond the enablement of connectivity and information flow, to cognitive and sensory assistance in the very definitions of information and in the co-creation of solutions for adaptive life.

Techno-social environments of all kinds are today witnessing profound transformations in international communication space with the liberations of many social, working and education processes. Over the last two decades, perception, automated reasoning and argumentation have become core activities in AI and machine learning, processing vast expert knowledge from interdisciplinary sources. Cognitive architectures, underpinned by extreme computational power can more effectively put knowledge to work and ultimately, more accurately navigate direction and decision making. The nature of education is evolving dramatically, with unprecedented access to information, mental storage interacting with the mobile internet, and adaptive learning modelling and provisioning all aspects of information flow.

Throughout ethics, security, health and many other concerns, alliances and deliberative forums have emerged, to explore the societal implications of new cognitive technologies. While state governance can be a catalyst in funding innovation research, its is now data-driven enterprises and intelligence agencies that have more comprehensive and practical views on global and cultural scenarios, particularly with regard to human-technology interaction.

Stakeholders, Opportunities, and Risks in Responsible Innovation (source: Ethics of Data)

Learning to adapt

As this new global infrastructure becomes the medium for polity, governance constructs around the world are increasingly outmoded. Public and private sector cooperation can better combine data and high technology for answers and solutions, supporting the reformation of institutions, with cultural revolutions in cognitive and symbiotic technology. These paradigm shifts should in turn, be countered with a robust multi-agent flow of social deliberation in the new public sphere. Today, in high-risk, highly networked economies, state forums for responsible innovation are already underway. Such concepts can be extended across disciplines, beyond pure economics and environmental concerns, to establish forums for responsible social innovation.

Enhanced knowledge structures and response capabilities are emerging from the progressive restructuring and re-tooling of societies and organizations. A partnership with cognitive technology. Beyond automation, toward interaction, insight and inter-agent human-technology systems. Reducing the constraining inferences of human bias, sharing daily challenges, and more effectively probing global systems and resources. As informatic, spatial and immersive connectivity intensify and transform our notions of civilization, entirely new concepts of freedom and ethics will emerge. It is time we face the real implications of a new cognitive partnership, and learn how we can possibly adapt.

Author: Ivan Sean, c. 2018-2022 | USA
© 10 Sensor Foresight

Period: 2016-2022 | Language: English
Core Concepts: Responsible Social Innovation; Cognitive Partnership; 
AI-Usage: Non-generative digital platforms, output validation
Conflict of Interest: None
References: Stakeholders, Opportunities, and Risks in Responsible Innovation, Ethics of Data, 2022 | 'System', Siskin, 2017 | 'AI Ethics & Responsibility', Watson Research Center, IBM, 2018