Adapting to Change: How Machine Intelligences Adapt to a Changing World

GOTO Amsterdam 2022

Change is perhaps the only constant in our world, and it requires us to adapt to new realities. Depending on the rate of change and the amount of change, the requirement to adapt often results in our brains increasing levels of stress hormones as they try to adjust. To adapt to changes in the world that it lives in, our brain needs to make changes in what it’s learned, which means making changes in the neural structures that have captured that learning. Sometimes in fact it can be more difficult for our brains to relearn something than it is for them to learn it for the first time. Failing to adapt to change has been the downfall of many people, and even whole species.

While this is true for human intelligence, it’s also true for machine intelligence. But because of the isolated nature of machine intelligences it’s even more difficult for them to detect and adapt to change. In the vast majority of cases these intelligences are very limited in their ability to perceive and adapt to change, even in very limited, specialized areas of learning, which requires humans to design and direct their adaptation to change. Failing to adapt to change can lead to poor decision making, and even catastrophic consequences.

This talk will explore:

• How both human and machine intelligences adapt to change, including the state of the art and industry best practices for adapting machine intelligence to change
• Techniques for making change less stressful for both machines and their humans