In his book “How to stay smart in a smart world: Why human intelligence still beats algorithms,” Gerd Gigerenzer (2022) opposes the predominantly positive perspective on AI development with a plea for the uniqueness of the human intellect. He misses out on exploring a matter that is central to both aspects and I argue it is more worthwhile than pitting both against each other, namely, the future synthesis of human and artificial intelligence. In the present review, I want to outline this argument as a more productive approach to addressing the caveats of artificial and human intellect. I will introduce the weaknesses and strengths of both types of intelligence. I will make my argument for focussing on their synthetic cooperation rather than picking one of the two and elaborate on recent research ventures of human-machine cooperation that have a promising future in this regard.
Professor at George Washington University
I am a Professor with Human-Technology Collaboration and Educational Technology programs at George Washington University in Washington DC. I have written 12 books and more than 100 articles, and I co-host of the Parsing Science podcast where scientists tell the stories behind their research. I am also the developer of the WeShareScience.com online platform for sharing research videos, and SciencePods.com where researchers can create free podcasts about their science. My research interests include human interactions with intelligent machines, needs, needs assessments, and instructional design.
Latest posts by Ryan Watkins (see all)
- How to science a science with science - July 4, 2025
- How we (Anthropic) built our multi-agent research system - July 1, 2025
- Automatic Large Language Models Creation of Interactive Learning Lessons - June 29, 2025