» Abstract. Is artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world? Are humans losing out to AI in the work place? We are at a point in history, where it seems feasible that we create technologies that could become smarter than humans. This raises the fundamental question of what roles humans play in a future world. I argue that by using these advances in technologies and in particular in sensing and AI we can amplify human perception and cognition to levels that we could never before in history even imagine. We are at the beginning of this fundamental transformation: the use of digital tools to amplify the mind. Many products, ranging from mobile access to search engines, to wearable devices for lifelogging and augmented realty application give us first indications of this transition. In our research we create novel digital technologies that systematically explore how to enhance human cognition and perception. Our experimental approach is to: first, understand the users in their context as well as the potential for enhancement. Second, we create innovative interventions that provide functionality that amplifies human capabilities. And third, we empirically evaluate and quantify the enhancement that is gained by these developments. It is exciting to see how ultimately these new ubiquitous computing technologies have the potential for overcoming fundamental limitations in human perception and cognition and lead the way for creating cognitive and perceptual super powers. If we succeed to create technologies that seamlessly amplify human cognition and perception, humans augmented with these technologies will outsmart artificial intelligence. «




» Short Bio. Albrecht Schmidt is a professor for User Centered Ubiquitous Media in the Computer Science Department at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universität München (LMU Munich). Previously he was a professor at the University of Stuttgart, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the University of Bonn. He studied computer science in Ulm, Germany and Manchester, UK and receive in 2003 a PhD from the Lancaster University in the UK. For the last 15 years Albrecht has been dedicated to creating usable interactive systems. The focus of his work is on novel user interfaces to enhance and amplify human cognition. He is working on interaction techniques and interactive applications in the context of mobile and ubiquitous computing, including new communication interfaces and user interfaces in the car. Albrecht has published well over 200 refereed archival publications and his work is widely cited. He is co-founder of the ACM conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction (TEI), initiated the ACM conference on Automotive User Interfaces and co-chaired the ACM SIGCHI program in 2014. He is on the editorial board of ACM ToCHI, edits a forum on interaction technologies in the ACM Interactions magazine, and has a column in the IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. In 2016 Albrecht Schmidt received a ERC Consolidator Grant to work on the Project “AMPLIFY: Amplifying Human Perception Through Interactive Digital Technologies“. «
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