By Mark Sullivan

If it were up to Pattie Maes, the technology known as artificial intelligence, or AI, would be referred to instead as IA, for “intelligence augmented.”

“For decades now, I’ve been arguing that we should not aim to build the smartest possible machines that replace us in many ways, but we should use these same technologies to help people become a better version of themselves,” says Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab, where she heads the Fluid Interfaces research group.

“We should not forget the bigger picture”

Working along similar lines is Pat Pataranutaporn SM ’20, PhD ’24, PD ’24, the Asahi Broadcasting Corporation Career Development Professor of Media Arts and Sciences who is founding director of the Cyborg Psychology research group and a codirector with Maes of the Advancing Humans with AI research program at the Media Lab.

Pataranutaporn, who completed his PhD in the Fluid Interfaces group under Maes’s mentorship, pursues research at the intersection of AI and human-computer interaction. His Cyborg Psychology team develops personalized AI systems informed by human psychology and behavioral science to augment human capabilities in decision-making, critical thinking, and learning.