Cognitive carnage
By Matt Stroud
Would you like a small, medium, or large brain, Sir? What an absurd question! Brains are not like sizes of clothing; they’re more complex and multifaceted. The cognitive diversity in any population is vast. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. These differences are important and valuable, as employers increasingly recognise.
“Neuro-diversity is key to keeping Britain safe. At GCHQ, some of our most talented and creative people have a neuro-diverse profile – including dyslexia, autism, dyscalculia and dyspraxia conditions that affect the ability to process different forms of information. Having a diverse team and a mix of minds better equips us to carry out our mission and tackle new and emerging threats posed by terrorists, criminals and hostile states.”
- Jo Cavan: GCHQ’s director of strategy, policy & engagement
This richness of cognitive diversity is not reflected in today’s service journeys, resulting in waste and poorer outcomes. Take, for example, High School maths classes. A given year may be split into three streams, top, middle and bottom, and each stream teaches different material tailored to the pupil’s learning style. Tailored - really?! So the children in the bottom set who have ADHD, poor diet, low IQ, or whose parents are divorcing and can’t sleep, all have the same needs and benefit from the same material and style of teaching?
Let’s be honest; this is grossly unjust but forced on us by resource constraints in the form of a limited number of teachers. Schools are doing their best, butPersonal AI,Data and Digital ID mean that the old resource constraints need no longer be limiting. Each student can be taken on a truly personalised learning journey. One in which AI monitors what each student struggles with and responds by presenting the child with new material, which the AI has learned is most effective to support a child with those characteristics.
Through techniques like federated learning, no child’s data needs to be shared, yet the AI can draw on the experiences of millions of children to find just the right content to help that specific child learn their maths task. In addition to tailoring the content, the AI may recommend more sleep or a change of diet for the child. With Personal AI, Data and Digital ID, our lives will no longer be siloed but rather seen holistically as a set of intertwined threads, each shaping the others.
Today, our university system rigidly selects students based on exam performance, without ensuring they have a deep understanding of the subject’s principles. These students are then fast-tracked into top corporate jobs. At the same time, we waste the abilities of large parts of society because their brains aren’t small, medium, or large.
As if this weren’t bad enough, the carnage caused by the lack of genuinely personalised services is not confined to the classroom. What harm is caused by people struggling to understand their finances, or health advice, or voting for politicians with fantastical economic policies? Or on the more frivolous side: How much more exciting could video games be if tuned to our personal fear and serotonin centres?
Today’s personalised services are not good enough, and the harm this causes is plain enough to see all around us. We now have the opportunity to do much better and create better lives for individuals.