Charlatans, Sharks and Dreamers
Navigating the AI Noise
“The most important general-purpose technology of our era is artificial intelligence, particularly machine learning — that is, the machine’s ability to keep improving its performance without humans having to explain exactly how to accomplish all the tasks it’s given”. Harvard Business Review
I attempt to find clarity in the sea of noise and hype that accompanies most emerging technology. This involves researching, informing and identifying strategic application to business needs. I’ll post additional articles over the coming weeks on what my team and I have learned, as we explore AI capabilities, that may be useful to others.
Fact vs Fiction
If your media world is anything like mine, with every latest technology trend there is an increase in the number of charlatans, sharks and dreamers bringing us the next best thing. As a technology strategist and architect I need to navigate through the spin and half-baked ideas, ensuring real value can be demonstrated. Let’s take the Hollywood out of AI and bring it back to basics and practical use cases.
Mike Hinchey, a certified systems expert, president of the international federation for information processing was quoted in the Australian business review on the 22nd August. As a previous director of the NASA Software Engineering Laboratory and other informed positions, he is worth listening to.
“If it has an algorithm, it’s not AI. Just because its autonomous doesn’t mean it’s intelligent. A lot of what AI does right now is make things more efficient but do you need any higher intelligence for that? Building a truly intelligent machine will require a number of thresholds to be crossed ”
What is AI?
So what is AI? Self-driving auto magical rocket planes? Sometimes that’s the impression we get from mainstream media. One of the most straightforward definitions by Julian Togelius is that AI is a collection of methods and ideas for building software that can do some of the things we do with our brains, such as visual perception, speech recognition and decision making.
Let’s put AI in perspective with that definition in mind.
All AI solutions today are extremely narrow with a single solution focus, for example, a software program to play a game or drive a car. Most systems can only do this one task effectively and likely better than any human mind, but nothing else. The system that drives the car cannot play the game Go. There is still no generalised AI, a system with true cross-domain problem-solving ability.
Field Identification Guide
It’s clear we are exposed to a lot more AI fiction than fact today. To navigate through the noise, we need to be well versed in the facts and understand the practical applications of the technology. We also need to be able to identify the charlatans, sharks and dreamers. The following field identification guide will get you started:
- Charlatans — Experts by association. Close to software through guest membership of stand up meetings.
- Sharks — Have not mastered the dark arts of find and replace. Tips to identify include misspelling of your company name and leading software demos that include the ubiquitous ‘abc insurance’ account record.
- Dreamers — Sometimes known as futurists, but without the practical experience. Usually live in places you wished you could. Infinite imagination capability and ideas previously associated with LSD prior to AI hype. You won’t be around long enough to know if they are right are wrong. An aspirational career choice.
As for me, I’m still trying to find clarity and will share useful information and ideas that I uncover on various platforms and use cases.
This is part 1 of a 6 part series of articles exploring practical business applications of artificial intelligence.
Thanks to Lucy Adelaide for working on the illustrations above.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on October 13, 2017
