AI is a technology that was born in the West which shaped some of its characteristics. It strives to emulate analytical reasoning, which is the primary mode of reasoning used in engineering. Some AI algorithms are inspired by neural networks from the human brain because of the belief intelligence happens in the brain. It learns from data that are digitized. These characteristics pose questions that need investigation.
There is a vast body of literature about human intelligence, and the different types of reasoning including intuition. Analytical reasoning is only one of them. The school of embodied cognition posits this further—that the human body and its interaction with the environment shape human cognition. While AI can be given form as a robot and learn from its interaction with the environment, it does so based on digitized data captured through sensors. While emulating human body senses, a robot does not have a nervous system. For now, AI does not share biological traits with humans. However, either by design, hyper realistic robots or chatbots mimicking human thinking, writing and speaking, or by anthropomorphic projection, AI could be perceived as human and become preferred company over other humans. Why are we creating AIs striving to look or behave like humans?
Because an AI learns from digitized data, the pool of knowledge from which it learns is heavily biased towards what has been and can be measured or captured in a digital format. Notably, it leaves out oral traditions, and soft knowledge—all that cannot be measured or seen. Hence, what are the implications of relying on AI for being informed, learning, or making decisions?
We are all indigenous to a place, and in particular to our body and mind. Increasingly, AI-enabled technology is used in the field of healthcare and wellbeing. AI takes on many different forms and shapes including wearables, chatbots, and robots. The commonality between these three shapes of AI is that they are in direct relationship with humans, through one or more senses. How do we create true partnership in this relation, so that both humans and AI learn and grow with one another?
Investigating these questions should be done in a circular way, unfolding in a spiral pattern.
