Should Big Tech measure our Intelligence?
With the amount of data we give out about ourselves, it is very likely that Big Tech is capable of measuring our individual intelligence. What does the near future present us in terms of Intelligence
How do we define intelligence and how is it measured?
Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash
Intelligence is the ability of an organism to understand the world around it. It doesn’t end there! What truly defines intelligence is also the ability for that said organism, to adapt to the world around it.
What makes human intelligence different is our high levels of abstraction. We are able to discern patterns that exist in our world and make general rules for these.
We as Human Beings have high intelligence.
Our ability to solve everyday situations is integral to our lives. The ability to reason effectively plays a massive role in our social influence.
It is so important that we have actually made a measurement regarding this very trait- The Intelligence Quotient(IQ).
We measure IQ using various Standardized Tests such as the Raven’s Progressive Matrix(RPM), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(WAIS), etc.
However, due to the abstract nature of what we call intelligence, IQ tests have only been estimations of intelligence.
While able to measure certain aspects of what we may deem as intelligence(Fluid Intelligence, Short-Term Memory, etc), critics have also argued that it neglects other aspects such as Creativity and Social Intelligence.
This measurement still has great predictive power on many aspects of our lives. It may be possible for organizations to measure this trait through internet usage and other data we may provide.
Given the social connotations “Intelligence” has, this may lead to some serious problems.
Can Big Tech Measure Intelligence?
Big Data is capable of measuring many aspects of our lives. Facebook is known to be aggressive in its data collection mechanisms. They… basically know everything about you.
The massive amount of data we give on a day to day basis makes it easy for Big Tech to know us.
Companies such as Facebook- given our proclivities to put out a lot about our lives- should be capable of measuring this human trait we call intelligence.
They could, for example, measure our ability to Reason Logically using online arguments on twitter.
Or perhaps our spatial-recognition skills through our play in video games.
What prevents Medium for example from measuring our Verbal IQs, using the very articles we publish? Perhaps said articles may be ranked higher in terms of searches and provide Medium a profit?
Many may be skeptical at the thought of this. You may even be dismissive of the concept of IQ. However, Big Tech has something that could shatter our perceptions of ourselves. The power of AI(Artificial Intelligence).
Well designed AI has been capable of incredible predictive prowess.
If you want to be more frightened by the predictive capabilities of AI, check out this Forbes article. The author shows several ways in which Big Tech knows ourselves better than we could. In one example, Target was able to predict pregnancy.
If Big Tech wanted to, it could with utmost certainty create models that more accurately predict Human Intelligence.
Would we be ok with this?
Would we be ok with tech companies aware of our mental capacities?
I don’t know about you however, this makes me feel almost cattle-like.
What are the consequences of this?
Corporate Perspective:
For a company to develop a certain piece of technology, it must first see benefits in doing so.
So why exactly would a Tech Company want to produce IQ measurement technology?
One incentive might be Talent.
Big Tech and Silicon Valley Startups are on the constant search for brilliant minds. They seek individuals who are bound to help them make a profit and stay innovative.
By measuring the activity of the general populace, Big Tech could find that talent.
It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Google sending out emails to individuals inviting them to work there.
This is sure to provide many unsuspecting geniuses an opportunity at a great career.
There is still a negative possibility of this as with all technology.
Who is to prevent these companies from making malevolent Ad Servicing algorithms? Algorithms that may target certain populations due to their intelligence.
What if an algorithm finds out that certain ads work better with a certain population of X intelligence? Would it be unethical for them to use such an algorithm?
These are a few test cases for Intelligence AI in terms of corporations. There could be reasons for individuals to use such technology.
The Individual Perspective:
There are several reasons an individual may want to use Intelligence Measuring AI tools.
A parent, for example, could use these tools to help detect any learning impairments their child may have. This may help boost the overall performance of that child in school.
But the Human Will tends to veer towards the self.
What prevents us from using this to satisfy our sense of vanity?
There would, after all, be a certain sense of satisfaction in knowing that a person is of above-average Intelligence.
It could make the Social Media platforms much messier than they already are.
Cyber Bullying may take on another dimension. One where people make fun of others for being “inferior” to them.
Intelligence tools would make it so much easier for individuals to not only obtain a measure of their intelligence but display it too.
Imagine the added layer of narcissism that would permeate Social Media.
Twitter may start seeming more thoughtful in its content. An emphasis on the word seeming, as it could all be a mask hiding one’s true Intelligence.
We may have a new obvious way through which we could choose to differentiate ourselves.
In a world that’s becoming increasingly divided, the narcissism of small differences is something we shouldn’t let come between us.
Yet sadly empiricism will make these traits more obvious and harder to neglect.
The Social Perspective:
Such a tool could yield tremendous societal consequences.
If a government chose to identify a portion of its population and treat them differently, we may have the creation of a new class.
With new classes come new societal circumstances.
Depending on the treatment of such classes, societal clashes would be extremely likely.
What if Governments chose to make a new elite, regarding this set of people with above-average intelligence?
A new upper class, forever incapable of being accountable to the rest of the population.
From what we know, IQ currently correlates with many aspects of our life. These include but are not limited to:
Wealth
Income
Job performance
Academic Performance
Having a class of people given special treatment, and bound to perform exponentially better than the rest of society, will cause extreme societal discomfort.
That may be in a distant future, however.
More recently, governments haven’t been as ambitious as they would have been in terms of their policies.
In the near term, it is still likely that governments could surveil a population given their Intelligence and this is likely to raise new privacy concerns.
The discussion so far has dealt with what AI intelligence tools may bring to the table. It has been about what would happen if such tools made us more aware of the world around us.
It does however not take into account the democratization of AI or even Gene Editing tools which may make Intelligence awareness harder to contain.
One thing that is certain, however, is that moving forward, Imagination, and Creativity will be our greatest currencies.
In a world of neigh infinite possibilities, it would be those of us capable of dreaming up new creations and worlds that may end up ruling the world we currently live in.
Although our current measures of Intelligence are inadequate on those fronts, AI’s predictive prowess may prove itself noteworthy in this regard.
This will be a game-changer.
Conclusion.
We currently live in the most unpredictable time in human history.
We do not know where all this innovation will lead us. However, I do believe that the perception of Human Intelligence is about to play a much bigger role than ever before.
I must stress that this article is merely speculative in nature, but does concern my opinions on future possibilities.
I hope this article made you think. I hope it made you question. If you are an engineer, psychologist, neuroscientist, or biologist, I hope it gave you new ideas!
A part of me certainly wants to see how humanity will fare when we become more aware of this abstract thing we call Intelligence.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this article! Thanks for reading. If you liked this article don’t forget to leave a clap. If you didn’t, you can always skip the claps.
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Thanks for reading!
Thanks again Sam! A very timely & important article. Yet, I see a few deeply embedded problems, down in the paradigm layer. For example, I think it's not very effective to stick with such a limited basic definition of intelligence.
Consider this, if intelligence is only a capacity for understanding our local habitat (or the cosmos) and adaptability, we're doomed. For, without talent, imagination, creativity and the skills required to survive or thrive, understanding and adaptation are worse than useless. That is so because, without great understanding of ourselves, our own nature, our minds, abilities, ways, habits, tendencies, relationships and our community, we can never progress beyond being an exploitable socioeconomic consumer droid.
Of course, I'm not the first person to realize that, nor were Dr. Timothy Leary, Mohammad, Lao-Tzi, Confucius, Jesus and Buddha. Hence, in the late '80s I realized that stupidity is not the opposite of intelligence, its the opposite of wisdom. Only the most intelligent person can be the stupidest, making the biggest mistakes when they should have known better.
Tao-te Ching is ripe with many wise admonitions against being a very clever or well-educated fool.
We've all known or heard stories about absent-minded geniuses or folks with high IQ scores but little or no common sense & practical skill. Then there's also the mostly forgotten findings on the 9 different types of basic human intelligence & natural talents. Sam, neither the standard IQ tests nor the other ways of analyzing intelligence you mentioned account for those 9 basic kinds of innate personal intelligence.
For me, the most troubling issues are 1) the belief that average or even very clever programmers/system developers could or would develop a for-profit commercially sponsored AI-IQ-Analyst surveillance system may do some kind of good and 2) that "we" means all human beings and 3) that most of us are NOT getting less intelligent. Exemplary proofs of those 3 problems can be found everywhere now, online & elsewhere.
For example, I see the the lack of a bioethical AI-Advisor system (with a database of all human wisdom & ethics) as existential proof that Issue 1 exists because very clever people and big corporations lack a) good human values, b) ethics, c) morals, d) wisdom and e) enough intelligence to foresee & fear the consequences of their very high level of stupidity. We should be praying that a bioethical AI-Advisor system is developed & deployed globally ASAP, before many more Fukushima/Chernoble type disasters start occurring.
The trouble with Issue 2 is that too many of us think we are all highly intelligent animals, while that's obviously not the case. Most current uses of AI enhance only corporate profitability, not survivability of the biosphere now turning ever-more deadly and dangerous, thanks to most of us. Cognitive science studies and empirical observation of many different people reveals that humans display a broad spectrum of differing levels of intelligence & wisdom.
For example, folks born with Downs' syndrome & other cerebral disabilities are human, yet without special care their ability to understand their world, to adapt, survive and thrive on their own is usually nonexistent or minimal. Then we have the Hitlers and Trumps and even smarter ecocidal maniacs near the other end of the IQ spectrum.
According to Sam Clemens AKA Mark Twain, we seem to have a 4-level spectrum, with negative & positive alpha percentiles (5%ers) at both ends of our IQ+EQ+SQ* spectrum. Sadly, the best positive alpha folk are usually ignored or given lip service, until the exploitation & abuses of the negative 5%ers is so awful & the consequences so catastrophic even the 10%er supporters & protectors (goon squads) and the average folk filling 85% of the spectrum have had enough. Then the 95% will respect and follow the positive alpha 5%ers, for awhile. Then, historically, the new civilization game starts declining again, almost immediately, enabling the negative 5%ers to rule the roost again.
However, this time the decline & fall of 'modern' kleptocratic civilization may bring about 98% of all species down with it, with us, ecocidal humanity. That brings us to my Issue 3:
Between the extremes, in advanced Western nations, the average IQ level has dropped by about 14 points so far. That could be because of the ever more pervasive use of 'smart' phones & gadgets, commercial propaganda, deliberate dyseducation, unrewarding jobs, welfare state politics, severe dysequity & inequality, demoralization and the decline of ethical training in most 'Western' homes.
So, if my analysis of those 3 big issues is valid, our future problems will not be caused by any use of AI. Our worst possible future could be caused by those of us who choose an ecocidal dystopia--for-profit or by default--because they don't care about ethics or about creating an ecotopian future for all generations.
Finally, caring about intelligence levels, concerns about AI surveillance & profiling for profit seem far less important than caring about generating more compassionate wisdom, globally. Like Gary Kasparov, I know that AI can help us with that project, but only if enough of us prefer healthy wisdom & compassion more than oblivious greed, ruinous consumption and anti-bioethical cleverness.
I look forward to your response! Thanks ~ M
For more on AR (actual reality) intelligence, use following links:
> https://blog.adioma.com/9-types-of-intelligence-infographic/
> https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/iq-scores-going-down-research-flynn-effect.html
* IQ+EQ+SQ = IQ tests for Euro-American style cleverness. EQ is a fuzzy measure of emotional maturity & relational resilience. SQ = Would be a measure of social skills, status, likability, etc. Yet, there could be a measure of talent & personal cultural skills. It also seems high time we have a measure of ecological intelligence (EiQ). So, without factoring a person's EiQ & their unique mix of our 9 kinds of natural intelligence, I see no way to get a truly holistic measure of the whole of a human being's intelligence.
For more on ecotopian alternatives, go to https://www.MichaelLucasMonterey.com/