In the race for true autonomous AI, the intelligence portion of the equation, or the right hemisphere, already exists and has for some time. Intelligence is simply the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills, which has been demonstrated by Watson, Google, ChatGPT and others. For example, on Amazon enabled devices, one can say “Alexa, play my weekend playlist”,  and Alexa accesses the right hemisphere information and plays your weekend playlist. What is missing in the AI race is the human construct of cognition that uses both a left and right hemisphere for interacting on a truly human level and beyond.

“In order for integrated systems to autonomously interact and communicate with humans, they must first understand the human construct of cognition.” ~Herman DeBoard

It is only with this cognitive spark that we will see one moment, where a device reads, through a left hemisphere sensory collector, that a human is feeling happy, and because of its intelligence on the topic of this emotion stored in the right hemisphere, combined with the data it has been collecting as the person searches, for example, for airline tickets to Hawaii, that it understands how to communicate with that human independently on a more human level. It can then pass this knowledge on to a ‘collective brain’ almost instantaneously. Inside of an Integrated Cognitive Communication System, this series of functions could create some very efficient messages that would appear to be coming from your best ‘human’ friend when, in fact, it would be Ai, or artificial intelligence.

“The trick to sparking true AI is giving it the ability to understand the universe from a human perspective and interact therein.” ~Herman DeBoard

For example, the current artificial intelligence system already knows your style preferences, your sizes, your color choices, your price tendencies, and other buying behaviors. It then combines these with facts it is collecting in real time, or in this case, that you have searched for and purchased airline tickets to Hawaii and that you appear to be happy about it. It then instantly suggests luggage, bathing suits, or a pair of shoes that would be perfect for your trip. It may also suggest that you post pics of yourself in outfits on social media. As it learns more cognitive skills, it could even compliment you in a meaningful way.

On the other side of the spectrum, an Ai system trained to understand cognition and feelings might hear you arguing with a spouse. The system recognizes the hostility as a human emotion and accesses its library of information on ways to diffuse a situation. The system could start playing soothing background music, or it might even suggest, as an independent 3rd party, that the two of you take a break and cool off before continuing the conversation.

Integrated Cognitive Communication (ICM) is the future for AI and it is much closer to reality than you might think. But companies need to move faster into the realm of Artificial Cognition in order to make it a reality. And in theory, helping Ai systems to understand the context of human feelings might just make this whole Ai revolution a little less scary. But then again... it might be creepier than you think.