A few years ago I came upon the work of Marvin Minsky. Commonly regarded as an AI pioneer, I stumbled upon his writings and lectures when I hit a roadblock of sorts.

At the time, I was knee-deep researching and learning all I could about emotions, emotional awareness, and how this form of intelligence is widely discounted and usually ignored.

In a TEDTalk he did, Mr. Minsky mentioned something that truly struck me at the time– that emotions were a higher way of knowing— in other words an advanced form of awareness and intelligence that we had yet to “crack”–as in crack its code.

It was then that I realized that “artificial intelligence is only as intelligent as the human being, or machine designing and writing its code”. (as in “AI is only as I as the I“) .

By now, most of us have had experiences with AI and the abyss of unintelligent webs we’re often dragged through. If one does not “think” like the virtual assistant, no assistance can be received. A technology and exchange originally designed to establish or reinforce a connection can easily turn to frustration and disconnection.

Mirroring of emotions, as some robots and AI is/are already capable of performing, is not the same as real emotional reflection— or is it? As I wrote in this piece, perhaps it is machines/AI who will one day show us to ourselves. Until that time, it is imperative that each one of us acknowledge and recognize how vastly intelligent we actually are. Doing so, may be just what the next wave of virtual assistants need from us and vice-versa.

What lies on the other side of our collective upgrade is actually much richer and vibrant than most of us can even imagine– true connection and creativity all because we upgraded the code of ourselves– of the I.