Artificial Intelligence (AI) aims to replicate the human brain with artificial neural networks and learn how we humans do through machine learning. The desired outcome: software that makes decisions like a human - only faster and more efficiently. Sounds great - but could the human decision-making authority be at risk? We examine the advantages and weaknesses of humans and machines.
Technological progress, it must be said despite all enthusiasm, often leads to displacement. Examples from past decades include analogue small-format films, videotapes, typewriters, or telex and fax machines.
So far, it has always been about replacing one technology with another, better one: However, a completely different conflict is emerging: If Artificial Intelligence is supposed to replicate human intelligence - can it then not also replace it? Does a similar revolution threaten services, organization, and creative work as the one triggered by robotics in production?
Indeed, many view the increasing spread of Artificial Intelligence critically - some even consider it threatening. But as is often the case, reservations can be reduced with information. That's what we want to try to do here and show you what AI-powered software can do - and where humans still have the upper hand.
Human and AI: Weaknesses and Strengths
Have you ever tried to list everything a human mind is capable of achieving? They can learn, invent, learn to play an instrument, enjoy art, even create artworks themselves...
It's impossible to create a complete list of what our minds can produce. And we haven't even mentioned that emotions and consciousness also arise in the brain.
All that we currently know about Artificial Intelligence (AI) is limited to a partial aspect - such as interpreting human language in digital voice assistants. Because of this limitation, it is also referred to as 'weak AI.' There is no 'strong AI' yet.
Limits of AI: What Doesn't Work
Artificial intelligence, as we know it today, fundamentally reaches its limits much earlier than many believe. This has several consequences:
- AI handles partial tasks well; however, it fails in dealing with the complexity of our reality, just as it does with general or transfer knowledge. When we see a speed limit sign in the middle of a garden surrounded by party guests, we conclude from our experience: Someone is celebrating their 50th birthday here and wants to show it. Why else would this sign be in the grass? In contrast, AI would only conclude that the maximum speed in the garden is 50 km/h.
- AI is only as good as its training with the data provided to it - while humans often require less information to learn to apply knowledge to new situations. A child will recognize a real giraffe at the zoo even if it has only seen drawings in books before, and a driver will recognize a stop sign even if it is snow-covered. AI will only be able to do this if such deviations were also present in its learning material. As a result, AI requires an immense amount of data - and still does not reach the interpretive and transfer abilities of humans.
- A matter of logic: Do people dress warmly in winter because it's cold - or is it cold in winter because people wrap up their warm bodies? Thanks to our life experience and the logic of our minds, we can dismiss the question as nonsense. For an AI that cannot distinguish between causality and correlation like us and that only has a snapshot of data available, the matter is not quite so clear-cut.
Opportunities of AI: What is Possible
The aforementioned weaknesses of AI, viewed from another perspective, are also its strengths. Because they precisely mirror what humans lack - and thus complement them.
- When it comes to storing a multitude of patterns and retrieving them whenever needed, AI is vastly superior to humans. Pattern recognition, even in the largest data chaos, is one of the powerful advantages of artificial intelligence.
- Regardless of how much data, how many influencing factors (decision variables), or statistical relationships come its way: AI can fundamentally process all of it and is only limited by computational power and storage size. Otherwise, the rule applies: the more, the merrier. With a volume and complexity of data that would have long overwhelmed humans, artificial intelligence gradually warms up.
- Artificial intelligence is fast. Very fast. This allows it to analyze and weigh far more options and their consequences than humans. It doesn't necessarily make decisions logically (and certainly not morally), but based on informed probabilities.
Conclusion: Intelligence is when we work together
Machine learning, data analysis, algorithms, pattern recognition – let's set aside all these technical aspects for a moment and consider what you gain from all this in your professional life... For example, in project management.
On one side, there's the human (that's you), who possesses the experience and logical understanding essential for handling multiple projects and processes, as well as orchestrating all project participants.
On the other side stands "colleague AI", who has a grip on all information, data, and resources and can calculate countless options at any time that could advance your projects. This doesn't sound like a conflict at all, but rather like the ideal complement, right?
And that's exactly how the use of artificial intelligence works at Can Do: We harness its ability to analyze vast datasets and recognize patterns in that part of project management where it's most needed: resource management.
No matter how large the company and how extensive your project portfolio: AI knows which projects still need resources and skills, where to find them within the organization, and how long they should be allocated to which project phases to maximize benefit. From this, AI makes autonomous suggestions – which you can then accept. Or reject, because instead, you've come up with a solution that only a human can conceive.
"Achieving Balanced Projects" – this stated goal of Can Do is also reached through the complementary coexistence of artificial intelligence and common sense.
Sources & Inspiration: Fintechcube.com, doubleslash.de, welt.de
