Aniket (Niki) Kittur, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute, was a guest on the GeekWire Podcast where he discussed the frontier of crowd-augmented cognition. This concept involves humans working together with technology, particularly artificial intelligence, to enhance cognitive abilities. Kittur’s research focuses on new methods of augmenting human intellect using crowds and computation. One of the projects he discussed was Skeema, a browser tab manager designed to help users organize their work, projects, and thoughts more effectively.
Kittur’s research is centered around helping people make sense of overwhelming amounts of information that they encounter online. By combining human strengths with machine capabilities, his lab aims to assist individuals in understanding, making decisions, and being creative with information in a more efficient manner. They have studied crowdsourcing movements such as Wikipedia and Mechanical Turk to explore how people can work together to achieve more than they could individually, and how to effectively combine human and machine resources.
One project Kittur mentioned involves working with Toyota to help their automotive designers enhance their creativity using AI. By leveraging artificial intelligence, designers can find inspiration from unrelated fields, such as studying how a crow’s flight patterns stabilize its path for insights on better mobility solutions. AI can help unlock unique ideas that may be difficult for humans to come up with on their own, and is utilized to suggest innovative approaches to design challenges.
The Skeema browser tab organizer aligns with Kittur’s research goals of stitching information back together to form knowledge. While currently used on an individual level to organize fragmented browsing information, the vision is to connect individuals utilizing Skeema and build on each other’s contributions. This collaborative approach to information processing could lead to constant improvement, faster learning, increased innovation, and more effective problem-solving.
Kittur also discussed how the human brain is composed of different components that work together for various functions, such as memory, reasoning, and vision. Similarly, he suggests approaching information processing on a larger scale by utilizing different characteristics of tools like Large Language Models (LLMs) to assist with human goals. By leveraging the strengths of different components and technologies in combination, it is possible to enhance cognitive abilities and achieve desired outcomes more effectively.
In conclusion, Aniket Kittur’s research focuses on leveraging the combined strengths of humans and machines to help individuals navigate and make sense of vast amounts of information. Projects like Skeema and collaborations with companies like Toyota demonstrate how AI can be used to enhance creativity and problem-solving in various industries. By understanding the different components of the human brain and leveraging technologies like LLMs, Kittur aims to advance the field of crowd-augmented cognition and improve cognitive abilities through collaborative efforts.
