Human Computation (Humans Plus Computers) May Solve Wicked Problems

Summary: Human computation (humans plus computers) may solve wicked problems via crowd-powered interactive inputs, according to a Jan. 1 Science article.

Crowdsourcing breaks large tasks down into microtasks that are delivered via user-friendly interface to large crowds; image credit Pietro Michelucci and Janis L. Dickinson/Science: Science Magazine @sciencemagazine, via Twitter Jan. 1, 2016

An article published online Friday, Jan. 1, 2016, in Science presents an expanding perspective of human computation, a nascent method for combining human and computer intelligence to solve the world’s wicked problems, as benefiting from real-time, crowd-powered collaborative inputs.

The perspective’s two co-authors define wicked problems as “those that defy traditional problem-solving methods.” Human computation, a term coined in 2005 by reCAPTCHA co-founder Luis von Ahn in his Ph.D., combines the respective pluses of human and computer intelligence for resolving challenging problems that are not solvable independently in solo endeavors by either computers or humans.

“Human computation, a term introduced by Luis von Ahn, refers to distributed systems that combine the strengths of humans and computers to accomplish tasks that neither can do alone,” explain lead author Pietro Michelucci, founder of Fairfax, Virginia-based Human Computation Institute, and co-author Janis L. Dickinson, Arthur A. Allen Director of Citizen Science at Ithaca, New York’s Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Both of the study’s co-authors are involved in current projects that are based on crowd-powered interactive inputs in a flexible environment of human computation collaboration. Janis Dickinson is principal investigator of YardMap.org, developed by Cornell Lab of Ornithology as a citizen science project for mapping bird habitats and creating sustainable wildlife landscapes. YardMap.org is recognized as the world’s first interactive citizen scientist social network.

“By sharing and observing practices in a map-based social network, people can begin to relate their individual efforts to the global conservation potential of living and working landscapes,” explains Dr. Janis Dickinson, who is also a professor in Cornell University’s Department of Natural Resources.

Lead author Pietro Michelucci founded the Human Computation Institute in 2014 as a nonprofit innovation center tackling educational, health and humanitarian issues through “novel methods leveraging the complementary strengths of networked humans and machines.” WeCureALZ.com, Dr. Michelucci’s current initiative, seeks to reduce the time for manual image analysis of reduced blood flow, a symptom of Alzheimer’s Disease, from the 60 years projected by current methods down to two years through crowdsourcing to citizen scientists. Funded by BrightFocus Foundation, WeCureALZ initiative brings in collaborators at Cornell University, Princeton University, SciStarter, University of California Berkeley and WiredDifferently.

“By enabling members of the general public to play some simple online game, we expect to reduce the time to treatment discovery from decades to just a few years,” explains Dr. Michelucci. “This gives an opportunity for anyone, including the tech-savvy generation of caregivers and early stage AD patients, to take the matter into their own hands.”

The co-authors note reCAPTCHA as the pioneering example of human computation. Deciphering distorted on-screen text, known as CAPTCHA (“Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”), tends to be an easy, or trivial, task for humans but challenges computers. Each day an estimated 100 million internetters smoothly prove that they are humans, not bots, through use of the web widget reCAPTCHA. The reCAPTCHA system presents text that poses difficulties for optical character recognition (OCR) software and then transmits the humanly transcribed results to digitization projects.

“This free cognitive labor provides users with access to Web content and keeps websites safe from spam attacks, while feeding into a massive, crowd-powered transcription engine that has digitized 13 million articles from The New York Times archives,” note the perspective’s co-authors.

Janis Dickinson and Pietro Michelucci are finessing the collaborative aspects of human computation as an offshoot of artificial intelligence.

“What’s most exciting to me about human computation is that it gives us hope today,” remarks Pietro Michelucci.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's YardMap is recognized as the world's first interactive citizen scientist social network: YardMap's Habitat Network @TheHabitatNetwork, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2014

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

Crowdsourcing breaks large tasks down into microtasks that are delivered via user-friendly interface to large crowds; image credit Pietro Michelucci and Janis L. Dickinson/Science: Science Magazine @sciencemagazine, via Twitter Jan. 1, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/sciencemagazine/status/683015157249896448

Cornell Lab of Ornithology's YardMap is recognized as the world's first interactive citizen scientist social network: YardMap's Habitat Network @TheHabitatNetwork, via Facebook Nov. 25, 2014, @ https://www.facebook.com/TheHabitatNetwork/photos/a.167854379916980/747052078663871/

For further information:

Browne, Clayton. "'Human Computation' Could Solve Toughest Global Problems." Value Walk > Science. Jan. 4, 2016.
Available @ http://www.valuewalk.com/2016/01/human-computation-solve-toughest-global-problems/

Choi, Charles Q. "Computers Plus Crowds Could Tackle World's Toughest Problems." Live Science > Tech. Dec. 31, 2015.
Available @ http://www.livescience.com/53247-human-computation-could-tackle-worlds-toughest-problems.html

DC Technology ‏@_DCTech. "Human machine super intelligence can solve world's most `wicked` problems." Twitter. Jan. 3, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/_DCTech/status/683664900984446976

Human Computation Institute. "Human Computation and its implications." YouTube. Jan. 8, 2016.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZnfLhXUKZ0

"Human-machine superintelligence can solve the world's most dire problems." EurekAlert! > Public releases. Dec. 31, 2015.
Available @ http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-12/hci-hsc121815.php

Marriner, Derdriu. "Diego San: Robot Baby Shows Baby Smiles as Control to Make Moms Smile." Earth and Space News. Friday, Sept. 25, 2015.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2015/09/diego-san-robot-baby-shows-baby-smiles.html

Mejias, Melany. "Human interaction with computers could help solve global problems." Pulse Headlines > Science. Jan. 4, 2016.
Available @ http://www.pulseheadlines.com/human-interaction-with-computers-could-help-solve-global-problems/14172/

Michelucci, Pietro; and Janis L. Dickinson. "The power of crowds." Science magazine, vol. 351, issue 6268 (Jan. 1, 2016): 32-33. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad6499
Available @ http://www.sciencemag.org/content/351/6268/32

Newswise. "Human Computation Institue." Vimeo. 645326.HC5. Dec. 23, 2015.

Science Magazine @sciencemagazine. "The exceptional potential of reCAPTCHA, Wikipedia, and other human computation systems." Twitter. Jan. 1, 2016.
Available @ https://twitter.com/sciencemagazine/status/683015157249896448

YardMap's Habitat Network @TheHabitatNetwork. "Did you know that birds like stories? The types of stories that exist in complex ecosystems, like overstories, midstories and understories. Explore this new graphic YardMap has created. To download the PDF and learn more about habitat stories, visit our website." Facebook. Nov. 25, 2014.
Available @ https://www.facebook.com/TheHabitatNetwork/photos/a.167854379916980/747052078663871/