essay on ai vs human intelligence

Artificial Versus Human Intelligence Essay

Introduction.

With the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), it became clear that future technologies will further advance the autonomous ability of computers to generate new data. Human intelligence lies in the basis of such developments and represents the collective knowledge gained from the analysis of experiences people live through. In turn, AI is an outcome of this progression, which allows humanity to put this data in a digital form that possesses some autonomous qualities. As a result, AI also contains limitations that the human brain does not have, such as physical constrictions that put a cap on its computational capacities (Korteling et al., 2021). At the same time, people are not bound by a defined amount of operating memory in their thoughts.

It is impossible to adequately compare artificial and ‘real’ intelligence, as they do not share the same functionality on a physical level. Korteling et al. (2021) state that AI possesses “fundamentally different cognitive qualities and abilities than biological systems” (p. 1). Scientists are able to push the limits of AI further through technological progress, yet human brains can not be modified in a similar fashion. The sheer complexity of people’s cognitive abilities governs the processes that are above what computers can perform. However, AIs can work with massive amounts of data that people can not handle. The current state of AI allows many industries to apply this technology in their operations successfully. People can train AIs to excel at the analysis of a particular type of information and direct their accumulated knowledge to achieve specific goals.

In conclusion, humans’ cognitive abilities and AI differ in development potential, range of application, and many other aspects, yet they can complement each other.

Korteling, J. E., Boer-Visschedijk, G. C., Blankendaal, R. A., Boonekamp, R. C., & Eikelboom, A. R. (2021). Human- versus artificial intelligence. Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence , 4 .

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Table of Contents

What is artificial intelligence, what is human intelligence, artificial intelligence vs. human intelligence: a comparison, what brian cells can be tweaked to learn faster, artificial intelligence vs. human intelligence: what will the future of human vs ai be, impact of ai on the future of jobs, will ai replace humans, upskilling: the way forward, learn more about ai with simplilearn, ai vs human intelligence: key insights and comparisons.

From the realm of science fiction into the realm of everyday life, artificial intelligence has made significant strides. Because AI has become so pervasive in today's industries and people's daily lives, a new debate has emerged, pitting the two competing paradigms of AI and human intelligence. 

While the goal of artificial intelligence is to build and create intelligent systems that are capable of doing jobs that are analogous to those performed by humans, we can't help but question if AI is adequate on its own. This article covers a wide range of subjects, including the potential impact of AI on the future of work and the economy, how AI differs from human intelligence, and the ethical considerations that must be taken into account.

The term artificial intelligence may be used for any computer that has characteristics similar to the human brain, including the ability to think critically, make decisions, and increase productivity. The foundation of AI is human insights that may be determined in such a manner that machines can easily realize the jobs, from the most simple to the most complicated. 

Insights that are synthesized are the result of intellectual activity, including study, analysis, logic, and observation. Tasks, including robotics, control mechanisms, computer vision, scheduling, and data mining , fall under the umbrella of artificial intelligence.

The origins of human intelligence and conduct may be traced back to the individual's unique combination of genetics, upbringing, and exposure to various situations and environments. And it hinges entirely on one's freedom to shape his or her environment via the application of newly acquired information.

The information it provides is varied. For example, it may provide information on a person with a similar skill set or background, or it may reveal diplomatic information that a locator or spy was tasked with obtaining. After everything is said and done, it is able to deliver information about interpersonal relationships and the arrangement of interests.

The following is a table that compares human intelligence vs artificial intelligence:

According to the findings of recent research, altering the electrical characteristics of certain cells in simulations of neural circuits caused the networks to acquire new information more quickly than in simulations with cells that were identical. They also discovered that in order for the networks to achieve the same outcomes, a smaller number of the modified cells were necessary and that the approach consumed fewer resources than models that utilized identical cells.

These results not only shed light on how human brains excel at learning but may also help us develop more advanced artificial intelligence systems, such as speech and facial recognition software for digital assistants and autonomous vehicle navigation systems.

The researchers focused on adjusting the "time constant," or the pace at which one cell makes a decision about its own fate based on the actions of its associated cells. Some cells make decisions rapidly, while others take longer to respond and base their choice on the actions of nearby cells.

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The capabilities of AI are constantly expanding. It takes a significant amount of time to develop AI systems, which is something that cannot happen in the absence of human intervention. All forms of artificial intelligence, including self-driving vehicles and robotics, as well as more complex technologies like computer vision, and natural language processing , are dependent on human intellect.

1. Automation of Tasks

The most noticeable effect of AI has been the result of the digitalization and automation of formerly manual processes across a wide range of industries. These tasks, which were formerly performed manually, are now performed digitally. Currently, tasks or occupations that involve some degree of repetition or the use and interpretation of large amounts of data are communicated to and administered by a computer, and in certain cases, the intervention of humans is not required in order to complete these tasks or jobs.

2. New Opportunities

Artificial intelligence is creating new opportunities for the workforce by automating formerly human-intensive tasks . The rapid development of technology has resulted in the emergence of new fields of study and work, such as digital engineering. Therefore, although traditional manual labor jobs may go extinct, new opportunities and careers will emerge.

3. Economic Growth Model

When it's put to good use, rather than just for the sake of progress, AI has the potential to increase productivity and collaboration inside a company by opening up vast new avenues for growth. As a result, it may spur an increase in demand for goods and services, and power an economic growth model that spreads prosperity and raises standards of living.

4. Role of Work

In the era of AI, recognizing the potential of employment beyond just maintaining a standard of living is much more important. It conveys an understanding of the essential human need for involvement, co-creation, dedication, and a sense of being needed, and should therefore not be overlooked. So, sometimes, even mundane tasks at work become meaningful and advantageous, and if the task is eliminated or automated, it should be replaced with something that provides a comparable opportunity for human expression and disclosure.

5. Growth of Creativity and Innovation

Experts now have more time to focus on analyzing, delivering new and original solutions, and other operations that are firmly in the area of the human intellect, while robotics, AI, and industrial automation handle some of the mundane and physical duties formerly performed by humans.

While AI has the potential to automate specific tasks and jobs, it is likely to replace humans in some areas. AI is best suited for handling repetitive, data-driven tasks and making data-driven decisions. However, human skills such as creativity, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and complex problem-solving still need to be more valuable and easily replicated by AI.

The future of AI is more likely to involve collaboration between humans and machines, where AI augments human capabilities and enables humans to focus on higher-level tasks that require human ingenuity and expertise. It is essential to view AI as a tool that can enhance productivity and facilitate new possibilities rather than as a complete substitute for human involvement.

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Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing every sector and pushing humanity forward to a new level. However, it is not yet feasible to achieve a precise replica of human intellect. The human cognitive process remains a mystery to scientists and experimentalists. Because of this, the common sense assumption in the growing debate between AI and human intelligence has been that AI would supplement human efforts rather than immediately replace them. Check out the Post Graduate Program in AI and Machine Learning at Simplilearn if you are interested in pursuing a career in the field of artificial intelligence. 

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AI Should Augment Human Intelligence, Not Replace It

• David De Cremer
• Garry Kasparov

Artificial intelligence isn’t coming for your job, but it will be your new coworker. Here’s how to get along.

Will smart machines really replace human workers? Probably not. People and AI both bring different abilities and strengths to the table. The real question is: how can human intelligence work with artificial intelligence to produce augmented intelligence. Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov offers some unique insight here. After losing to IBM’s Deep Blue, he began to experiment how a computer helper changed players’ competitive advantage in high-level chess games. What he discovered was that having the best players and the best program was less a predictor of success than having a really good process. Put simply, “Weak human + machine + better process was superior to a strong computer alone and, more remarkably, superior to a strong human + machine + inferior process.” As leaders look at how to incorporate AI into their organizations, they’ll have to manage expectations as AI is introduced, invest in bringing teams together and perfecting processes, and refine their own leadership abilities.

In an economy where data is changing how companies create value — and compete — experts predict that using artificial intelligence (AI) at a larger scale will add as much as $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030 . As AI is changing how companies work, many believe that who does this work will change, too — and that organizations will begin to replace human employees with intelligent machines . This is already happening: intelligent systems are displacing humans in manufacturing, service delivery, recruitment, and the financial industry, consequently moving human workers towards lower-paid jobs or making them unemployed. This trend has led some to conclude that in 2040 our workforce may be totally unrecognizable .

• David De Cremer is a professor of management and technology at Northeastern University and the Dunton Family Dean of its D’Amore-McKim School of Business. His website is daviddecremer.com .
• Garry Kasparov is the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative. He writes and speaks frequently on politics, decision-making, and human-machine collaboration. Kasparov became the youngest world chess champion in history at 22 in 1985 and retained the top rating in the world for 20 years. His famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream. His latest book on artificial intelligence and the future of human-plus-machine is Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins (2017).

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Artificial Intelligence Vs Human Intelligence

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Introduction.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence are often compared as they represent two different forms of intelligence. While AI is a creation of technology, designed to perform specific tasks, human intelligence is natural, complex, and multifaceted. Understanding the differences between them helps to clarify their roles in today’s world, especially as AI becomes more advanced and integrated into various aspects of life. This article will explore the key distinctions between AI and human intelligence, covering their emergence, nature, learning capabilities, and future potential.

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The article will begin by defining AI and Human Intelligence, followed by a detailed comparison in a tabular form to highlight their differences clearly. It will also discuss the future impact of AI on jobs and human life, emphasizing the importance of combining the strengths of both intelligences for optimal outcomes.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI) refers to the ability of a machine or computer system to mimic human cognitive functions such as learning, problem-solving, and decision-making. AI is built using algorithms—sets of instructions that guide a system to perform tasks—along with large amounts of data that help train the system to improve over time. AI is not a single technology but a collection of various techniques like Machine Learning (ML) and Deep Learning (DL), which enable systems to analyze data, recognize patterns, and make decisions with minimal human intervention.

• Machine Learning (ML) : A subset of AI where systems learn from data and improve their performance without explicit programming for each task. For example, ML is used in applications like email spam filters and recommendation systems.
• Deep Learning (DL) : A more advanced form of ML that uses neural networks, mimicking the human brain’s structure, to handle large and complex datasets. It is often applied in image and speech recognition technologies.

AI systems are trained using vast amounts of data, allowing them to make predictions, automate tasks, and, in some cases, interact with users in real time, like chatbots or voice assistants. However, unlike humans, AI lacks emotions, creativity, and the ability to understand complex social cues.

What Is Human Intelligence?

Human intelligence refers to the natural cognitive abilities that allow people to learn, understand, and adapt to their surroundings. It encompasses various skills like reasoning, problem-solving, memory, creativity, and social interaction. Unlike AI, human intelligence is deeply rooted in biology, originating from the brain’s complex structure, where billions of neurons work together to process information, form thoughts, and drive behavior.

Key aspects of human intelligence include:

• Cognition : The ability to perceive and interpret information, think critically, and solve problems based on past experiences and learning.
• Emotional Intelligence : Humans can recognize, understand, and manage emotions, both their own and others’. This ability enables empathy, social skills, and the formation of meaningful relationships.
• Creativity : Unlike machines, humans can generate new ideas, imagine different scenarios, and innovate solutions beyond patterns found in existing data.
• Adaptability : Human intelligence is highly adaptable; people can learn from new experiences and adjust to changing environments using intuition and sensory input.

While human intelligence is influenced by genetics, upbringing, and life experiences, it also involves continuous growth and adaptation. This unique combination of emotional, social, and cognitive skills makes human intelligence versatile and dynamic, capable of handling diverse tasks and environments.

Artificial Intelligence vs. Human Intelligence: A Comparison in Tabular Form

To clearly illustrate the differences between Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human Intelligence, let’s compare them side by side. The table below highlights key aspects and contrasts how AI and human intelligence operate.

This table summarizes the core differences between AI and human intelligence. While AI excels in specific, repetitive tasks and processes data faster, human intelligence remains unmatched in adaptability, creativity, and emotional understanding.

What Will the Future of Human vs AI Be?

As AI continues to advance, it raises questions about the future relationship between artificial and human intelligence. While some view AI as a potential threat to human jobs and skills, others see it as an opportunity for collaboration and growth. The future likely involves a blend of both perspectives, where AI and human intelligence complement each other.

• Collaboration : The future of AI is not about replacing humans but working alongside them. AI can handle repetitive, data-intensive tasks, freeing up humans to focus on creative, strategic, and interpersonal activities. For example, in healthcare, AI systems can analyze medical data, while doctors make complex, empathetic decisions about patient care.
• Enhanced Capabilities : Humans and AI together can enhance each other’s capabilities. For instance, AI-powered tools can support workers in fields like education, finance, and engineering, helping them solve problems faster and more efficiently.
• Ethical and Safety Considerations : The development of AI must be guided by ethical standards to prevent misuse and ensure it benefits society. Regulatory frameworks and responsible programming are essential to manage risks associated with AI advancements.
• Continuous Learning and Adaptation : AI technology will continue to evolve, becoming more advanced and integrated into various aspects of life. At the same time, humans must adapt by acquiring new skills that AI cannot replicate, such as critical thinking, empathy, and creativity.

The future will likely involve AI and human intelligence working together, each complementing the other’s strengths to achieve a more efficient and innovative society.

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Will AI Replace Humans?

The question of whether AI will replace humans is a common concern, especially as AI technologies become more sophisticated and capable of performing tasks traditionally done by humans. While AI will likely automate some jobs, it is essential to recognize that it will also create new opportunities and roles that require human intelligence.

• Automation of Routine Tasks : AI is particularly effective in automating repetitive and data-driven tasks. Jobs in manufacturing, data entry, and customer support are examples where AI can efficiently take over. However, this automation allows humans to focus on more complex and creative tasks that require critical thinking and emotional intelligence.
• Emergence of New Job Roles : As AI technology develops, new roles such as AI trainers, data ethicists, and human-AI interaction specialists will emerge. These positions will focus on designing, managing, and overseeing AI systems, ensuring they function effectively and ethically.
• Valuable Human Skills : Skills like creativity, problem-solving, empathy, and leadership remain uniquely human and irreplaceable by AI. These abilities are vital for roles in areas such as healthcare, education, and management, where human insight and personal interaction are crucial.
• Collaboration Over Competition : Rather than viewing AI as a competitor, the future is about collaboration. Humans and AI working together can enhance productivity and innovation, such as AI-assisted design in engineering or personalized learning experiences in education.

In conclusion, while AI will automate some tasks, it is unlikely to replace humans entirely. The focus should be on upskilling and adapting to the changes AI brings, ensuring that human intelligence remains valuable and relevant in an AI-driven world.

Impact of AI on the Future of Jobs

AI is rapidly changing the job landscape, affecting various industries in different ways. While AI automation offers efficiency and productivity, it also brings challenges that impact the future of employment.

• Automation and Job Displacement : AI is already automating tasks in industries like manufacturing, logistics, and customer service. Jobs that involve repetitive, data-oriented, or manual tasks are at the highest risk of being automated. For example, AI-powered robots in factories can perform assembly line tasks more efficiently than humans, reducing the need for manual labour.
• Creation of New Opportunities : Despite the risk of job displacement, AI is also creating new opportunities in fields like AI development, data science, and cybersecurity. These roles focus on developing, managing, and securing AI systems, highlighting the importance of technical skills in the future job market.
• Shift in Skill Requirements : As AI takes over routine tasks, there is an increasing demand for human skills that AI cannot replicate, such as critical thinking, creativity, and emotional intelligence. Jobs in healthcare, education, and management will continue to rely on these human abilities, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and upskilling.
• Hybrid Work Models : The rise of AI will likely lead to hybrid work models where humans and AI collaborate. For example, in finance, AI can analyze large datasets to provide insights, while human analysts interpret the results and make strategic decisions based on their expertise.

The impact of AI on jobs will vary, but its influence highlights the importance of adapting to new technologies. By focusing on developing skills that complement AI, individuals can remain competitive and take advantage of new opportunities in an evolving job market.

Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence each have their strengths and limitations. While AI excels in processing data quickly and performing repetitive tasks with high precision, human intelligence remains unmatched in adaptability, creativity, and emotional understanding. The future likely involves a collaborative approach, where AI assists humans in various industries, enhancing productivity and efficiency while humans continue to provide the critical thinking, empathy, and innovation that AI lacks.

As AI becomes more integrated into daily life, the focus should be on leveraging the complementary nature of both forms of intelligence. By developing skills that AI cannot replicate and adapting to new technologies, humans can ensure that AI serves as a valuable tool rather than a competitor.

In summary, the coexistence of AI and human intelligence has the potential to transform industries, improve lives, and open up new opportunities, as long as ethical considerations and responsible development guide its growth.

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What is AI superintelligence? Could it destroy humanity? And is it really almost here?

Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, inaugural Cisco Chair of Digital Transport & AI, UNSW Sydney

Disclosure statement

Flora Salim receives funding from Australian Research Council and Cisco. She acknowledges the support from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) (CE200100005).

UNSW Sydney provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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In 2014, the British philosopher Nick Bostrom published a book about the future of artificial intelligence (AI) with the ominous title Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies . It proved highly influential in promoting the idea that advanced AI systems – “superintelligences” more capable than humans – might one day take over the world and destroy humanity.

A decade later, OpenAI boss Sam Altman says superintelligence may only be “ a few thousand days ” away. A year ago, Altman’s OpenAI cofounder Ilya Sutskever set up a team within the company to focus on “ safe superintelligence ”, but he and his team have now raised a billion dollars to create a startup of their own to pursue this goal.

What exactly are they talking about? Broadly speaking, superintelligence is anything more intelligent than humans . But unpacking what that might mean in practice can get a bit tricky.

Different kinds of AI

In my view the most useful way to think about different levels and kinds of intelligence in AI was developed by US computer scientist Meredith Ringel Morris and her colleagues at Google.

Their framework lists six levels of AI performance: no AI, emerging, competent, expert, virtuoso and superhuman. It also makes an important distinction between narrow systems, which can carry out a small range of tasks, and more general systems.

A narrow, no-AI system is something like a calculator. It carries out various mathematical tasks according to a set of explicitly programmed rules.

There are already plenty of very successful narrow AI systems. Morris gives the Deep Blue chess program that famously defeated world champion Garry Kasparov way back in 1997 as an example of a virtuoso-level narrow AI system.

Some narrow systems even have superhuman capabilities. One example is Alphafold , which uses machine learning to predict the structure of protein molecules, and whose creators won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year.

What about general systems? This is software that can tackle a much wider range of tasks, including things like learning new skills.

A general no-AI system might be something like Amazon’s Mechanical Turk : it can do a wide range of things, but it does them by asking real people.

Overall, general AI systems are far less advanced than their narrow cousins. According to Morris, the state-of-the-art language models behind chatbots such as ChatGPT are general AI – but they are so far at the “emerging” level (meaning they are “equal to or somewhat better than an unskilled human”), and yet to reach “competent” (as good as 50% of skilled adults).

So by this reckoning, we are still some distance from general superintelligence.

How intelligent is AI right now?

As Morris points out, precisely determining where any given system sits would depend on having reliable tests or benchmarks.

Depending on our benchmarks, an image-generating system such as DALL-E might be at virtuoso level (because it can produce images 99% of humans could not draw or paint), or it might be emerging (because it produces errors no human would, such as mutant hands and impossible objects).

There is significant debate even about the capabilities of current systems. One notable 2023 paper argued GPT-4 showed “sparks of artificial general intelligence”.

OpenAI says its latest language model, o1 , can “perform complex reasoning” and “rivals the performance of human experts” on many benchmarks.

However, a recent paper from Apple researchers found o1 and many other language models have significant trouble solving genuine mathematical reasoning problems. Their experiments show the outputs of these models seem to resemble sophisticated pattern-matching rather than true advanced reasoning. This indicates superintelligence is not as imminent as many have suggested.

Will AI keep getting smarter?

Some people think the rapid pace of AI progress over the past few years will continue or even accelerate. Tech companies are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in AI hardware and capabilities, so this doesn’t seem impossible.

If this happens, we may indeed see general superintelligence within the “few thousand days” proposed by Sam Altman (that’s a decade or so in less scifi terms). Sutskever and his team mentioned a similar timeframe in their superalignment article .

Many recent successes in AI have come from the application of a technique called “deep learning”, which, in simplistic terms, finds associative patterns in gigantic collections of data. Indeed, this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics has been awarded to John Hopfield and also the “ Godfather of AI ” Geoffrey Hinton, for their invention of Hopfield Networks and Boltzmann machine, which are the foundation for many powerful deep learning models used today.

General systems such as ChatGPT have relied on data generated by humans, much of it in the form of text from books and websites. Improvements in their capabilities have largely come from increasing the scale of the systems and the amount of data on which they are trained.

However, there may not be enough human-generated data to take this process much further (although efforts to use data more efficiently, generate synthetic data, and improve transfer of skills between different domains may bring improvements). Even if there were enough data, some researchers say language models such as ChatGPT are fundamentally incapable of reaching what Morris would call general competence.

One recent paper has suggested an essential feature of superintelligence would be open-endedness , at least from a human perspective. It would need to be able to continuously generate outputs that a human observer would regard as novel and be able to learn from.

Existing foundation models are not trained in an open-ended way, and existing open-ended systems are quite narrow. This paper also highlights how either novelty or learnability alone is not enough. A new type of open-ended foundation model is needed to achieve superintelligence.

What are the risks?

So what does all this mean for the risks of AI? In the short term, at least, we don’t need to worry about superintelligent AI taking over the world.

But that’s not to say AI doesn’t present risks. Again, Morris and co have thought this through: as AI systems gain great capability, they may also gain greater autonomy. Different levels of capability and autonomy present different risks.

For example, when AI systems have little autonomy and people use them as a kind of consultant – when we ask ChatGPT to summarise documents, say, or let the YouTube algorithm shape our viewing habits – we might face a risk of over-trusting or over-relying on them .

In the meantime, Morris points out other risks to watch out for as AI systems become more capable, ranging from people forming parasocial relationships with AI systems to mass job displacement and society-wide ennui.

What’s next?

Let’s suppose we do one day have superintelligent, fully autonomous AI agents. Will we then face the risk they could concentrate power or act against human interests?

Not necessarily. Autonomy and control can go hand in hand . A system can be highly automated, yet provide a high level of human control.

Like many in the AI research community, I believe safe superintelligence is feasible. However, building it will be a complex and multidisciplinary task, and researchers will have to tread unbeaten paths to get there.

• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Intelligence
• Artificial general intelligence
• Computer science
• Superintelligence

Commissioning Editor Nigeria

Subject Coordinator PCP2

Professor in Physiotherapy

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Editorial Internship