We argue that intelligence, construed as the disposition to perform tasks successfully, is a property of systems composed of agents and their contexts. This is the thesis of extended intelligence. We argue that the performance of an agent will generally not be preserved if its context is allowed to vary. Hence, this disposition is not possessed by an agent alone, but is rather possessed by the system consisting of an agent and its context, which we dub an agent-in-context. An agent's context may include an environment, other agents, cultural artifacts (like language, technology), or all of these, as is typically the case for humans and artificial intelligence systems, as well as many non-human animals.

There's a lot of discussion about autonomous and intelligent systems these days, but few realize the impact those technologies will soon have on technology design and use. Already, formal and informal groups are debating the potential impacts of AI systems with the goal of articulating values, principles, and best practices that help guide the responsible design and use of such systems. For example, MIT Media Lab and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) jointly announced the formation of the Council on Extended Intelligence (CXI) which intends to "build a new narrative" for AI/intelligent systems (A/IS) technology, inspired by principles of systems dynamics and design. CXI's initial efforts focus on three areas: participatory design, digital data agency, and metrics that measure prosperity more holistically than traditional indicators such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The respective projects are described below; although, the group's first challenge is distinguishing Extended Intelligence from AI and Augmented Intelligence.