CSIRO aims for machines to maximise human intelligence

CSIRO has launched a $12 million Collaborative Intelligence (CINTEL) Future Science Platform which aims to move beyond machines replacing people or automating their jobs, and instead to create teams that maximise the benefits of both human and machine intelligence.

CSIRO said that one of CINTEL’s first projects would draw on the expertise of CSIRO’s Robotics and Autonomous Systems Group who recently claimed a silver medal in the international DARPA Subterranean Challenge.

The challenge, which has been described as the ‘robot Olympics’, involved using teams of robots to explore and locate objects in unmapped underground environments under the supervision of a human operator.

CINTEL Leader Dr Cécile Paris said lessons from the challenge could help inform future human/robot teaming.

Dr Paris said the project would focus on developing a richer, dynamic human-robot collaboration, enabling humans and robots to respond in real time to changes in the environment and make better decisions, together.

“CINTEL will research dynamic situation awareness and mechanisms to ensure a collaborative dialogue between humans and robots throughout, for example, a rescue mission.

“Rescue missions are often ill defined and dynamic, and the humans must use their own knowledge and skills, like reasoning, intuition, adaptation and experience, to identify what the robots should be doing.

“CINTEL will investigate how humans can fully utilise their unique skillset in collaboration with the robots for successful outcomes.”

Other early CINTEL projects include developing a digital team member to help scientists make sense of the massive amount of information in modern biological collections and supporting cybersecurity analysts with collaborative surveillance.

The program will be run by CSIRO in collaboration with research and impact partner Saber Astronautics, as well as Emesent, the Queensland AI Hub, TAFE Queensland, Aged Care Industry Technology Council, Global Community Resourcing, the Department of Defence, the Queensland University of Technology, and researchers from Monash University and the University of Sydney.

Dr Paris said CINTEL program’s goal is to leverage the fundamental differences between human and machine intelligence to ensure the best outcomes.

“We’re used to hearing about machines competing with humans in games like chess.

“But what isn’t as well known is that humans collaborating with AI have proven superior to both the best AI systems and human chess players.

“Human intelligence is creative and adaptable, while machine intelligence is more specific and able to handle vast amounts of data.”

Collaborative intelligence moves beyond the idea of machines replacing people or even just ‘keeping people in the loop’, aiming instead to unlock completely new capability by creating teams that maximise the benefits of both types of intelligence.

Dr Paris said: “This is the next scientific frontier of digital transformation.”

CINTEL will run for four years and will bring together behavioural and social scientists with computer, robotics and domain experts to develop the general-purpose technology needed to facilitate collaborative human/machine teams.

Picture: CSIRO/Katrina Lo Surdo/fully autonomous drone from Emesent with a Hovermap system

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