LIVE FROM CES 2020, LAS VEGAS: LG Electronics president and CTO I.P. Park (pictured) argued extensive cross-device collaboration will be necessary to enable AI systems of the future, noting collective intelligence as imperative to expanding capabilities beyond simple automation to reasoning.

“We need to rethink and reinvent electronics from individual pieces of hardware to an integrated system of intelligent devices,” he said, outlining a four-tiered framework for AI development on stage alongside Element AI CEO Jean-Francois Gagne.

Level one includes smart assistants such as Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa, and focuses on efficiency through automation, which level two builds on with the addition of personalisation through pattern recognition.

Gagne noted the jump to level three, which centres on reasoning and allowing the AI to determine the “why” behind users’ preferences, will require insights from multiple intelligent touchpoints in a user’s life.

“From level three on, AI is much less about one individual device and what it can do by itself and more about the collective intelligence of a system of interconnected devices and solutions all working together.”

Park said LG Electronics’ broad portfolio of smart home devices could provide a leg up, but added open collaboration across the industry will be key to broad adoption.

Ultimately, Park noted LG Electronics is striving to reach level four, at which point AI systems will be able to generate and test their own hypotheses to proactively gather new information and develop new capabilties to improve users’ lives.