THINKPolicy #10: Considering the Future and Benefits of Cognitive Computing

It seems like almost every day a new headline warns us that artificial intelligence (AI) will soon take over the world, or at the very least steal jobs. Even when AI is not in the news, Hollywood offers up a steady stream of entertainment that depicts a very near future in which life as we know it is threatened by super-intelligent machines. These scenarios have something in common: they oversimplify and misrepresent an important and broader set of transformative technologies that hold great promise for business and society. They indulge in fantasy rather than take into account a rational and better-informed dialogue currently underway in the scientific, policy and business communities about what we consider the third age of computing – the cognitive era. What is Cognitive Computing Cognitive computing -- of which AI is but one part – refers to an entirely new class of technologies whose purpose is to deepen human engagement, scale and elevate expertise, enable new products and services, and enhance exploration and discovery.