What is the jagged AI frontier?

jagged AI frontier (noun)

The nonintuitive strengths and weaknesses of AI performance relative to human performance, and how it is changing over time.

A study about the impact of AI on the productivity of highly skilled workers sheds new light on the possibilities and pitfalls of relying too much on technology and not enough on human intuition.

A team of researchers that included MIT Sloan’s Kate Kellogg found that when generative AI is used within the boundary of its capabilities, it can improve a worker’s performance by as much as 40% compared with workers who don’t use it. But when generative AI is used outside that boundary in an attempt to complete a task, worker performance drops by an average of 19 percentage points.

Navigating this jagged technological frontier takes skill and training. Because some AI-generated answers look credible even when they’re incorrect, developers could work on designing an interface that would help workers avoid falling into such traps. Kellogg also recommended that organizations have an onboarding phase so employees can get a sense of how and where AI works well and where it doesn’t, and receive performance feedback. And everyone should be embracing a culture of accountability. “Managers and workers need to collectively develop new expectations and work practices to ensure that any work done in collaboration with generative AI meets the values, goals, and standards of their key stakeholders,” Kellogg said.

How generative AI can boost highly skilled workers’ productivity