Among the cognitive superpowers of Artificial Intelligence is “predictive” functionality.
AI models are no longer based only on logical algorithms, but now on statistical and probabilistic factors. Since probability is inherent in the ability to predict “likely” future scenarios, paradoxically, generative AI is less accurate in the trivial answer to questions about history than it is effective in the ability to develop designs and predictions.
We are thus faced with a predictive machine.
This function is already widely exploited in industry, for example, to predict the wear rate and future maintenance and replacement of machinery.
But one of the most interesting areas in which human extended intelligence will be called upon to operate will be precisely the ability to predict and plan for the future, thus extending our intellectual sphere from the comfort zone of the past and present, to the more imponderable realm of future scenarios and events.
This will be able to happen at the individual level, for example in the design of professional activities or innovative startups: human intelligence, supported by machine performance in the development of analyses that are difficult for a single individual to perform-competitive scenarios, business plans, concepts of new skills and activities-will be able to express themselves with unprecedented effectiveness.
Private enterprises and public institutions will also be able to take advantage of AI’s computational and probabilistic analysis capabilities in a controlled process aimed at defining different future scenarios, and choosing which ones to pursue to achieve their mission.
Finally, on a larger scale, it will come to use the predictive capabilities of AI in the strategic foresight (Strategic Foresight) of nations in the political and international arena as a useful support, under the control of the policy maker, for decision-making in a complex world.
The predictive visionary is thus a form of Homo Extensus who extends his or her capacity for vision from the past and present to the future.
Italiano