We’re developing Super Intelligence (SI). I’m worried about Functional Unintelligence (FU).
Artificial intelligence keeps getting smarter. The refrigerator knows what’s inside. The microwave wants Wi-Fi. The toaster has settings, sensors, buttons, and apparently an opinion about breakfast.
We’re working toward Super Intelligence, machines capable of reasoning beyond anything we have today. Meanwhile, some of the technology already in the kitchen still needs an internet connection to accomplish things we managed perfectly well in 1987.
That’s where Functional Unintelligence comes in.
It isn’t technology that lacks intelligence. It’s technology with impressive intelligence applied to a problem that didn’t particularly need it.
We’ve already seen the symptoms in Everything Is Connected to Customer Service, where a fully connected smart home mostly becomes better at asking for help. And The Smartest Device Still Can’t Find the Remote proves that adding intelligence doesn’t necessarily solve the problem you actually have.
The future may belong to Super Intelligence.
But FU is already all around us.
Explore more Chad Geepeety™ cartoons about artificial intelligence, smart homes, connected devices, and technology becoming considerably smarter without always becoming more useful.
