One Reason AI Is Overhyped
No amount of “sip-the-kool-aid” presentations by Apple & Google can breathe humanity into their virtual assistants.
Ex Machina is one of my favorite movies. In it, Nathan Baterman, intrepid CEO of Blue Book (creator of the humanoid robot), explains the Turing Test. This tests a machine’s ability to exhibit behavior indistinguishable from a human. And in this film, Ava (the humanoid robot) passes the test with flying colors.
As a product designer/developer who just released an app (Venn on iOS — it’s like Instagram for recommendations — you can download it here), I’m genuinely interested in predictive technology that makes things easier for people. Many herald the coming age (or arrival) of AI & Machine Learning vis a vis virtual assistants (Siri, Google Now & Cortana). Industry writers frame this as the space race between Apple, Google & Microsoft. The media and tech companies, however, are missing one critical flaw — THAT AI DOES NOT POSSESS HUMAN CREATIVITY.
An article written by Daisuke Wakabashi of the New York Times (Google Introduces the Pixel, Its Own Smartphone) quotes Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, saying “[t]he goal is to build a personal Google for each and every individual.” How can you build something personal that is run by a virtual assistant than cannot posses creativity? Instead of questioning Google’s proclamation, it seems like the media is sipping the AI kool-aid.
I’ll give you an anecdotal example. Google recently released Allo, their “smart” messaging app. Google touts Allo’s ability to have predictive responses. A good friend of mine (an Android user) and I (an iPhone user) were chatting over Allo about our strategy to buy Mets tickets for the upcoming Wild Card game (Let’s Go Mets!!!!!!!!!). In response to his proposal (buy tickets now or wait and hope that prices drop), Allo suggested “exactly” & “either would work.” While correct from a machine learning perspective, these answers were dry and lacked personality. I wound up writing something wittier (because my wonderful mother raised me not to be a drone). If you look at Google’s “predictions,” they share these commonalities — a lack of creativity and humanity.
What’s the consequence? Tech drastically overvalues AI’s potential. Tech misses the fact that we create technology for humans. Tech fails to innovate in ways that makes its platforms and virtual assistants easier to use for humans.
About Elon : Elon is a full stack developer, UI/UX designer, data architect, growth hacker, attorney and musician. He is Lead iOS Developer of Venn(iOS, download here), Instagram for recommendations. He also serves as a technical advisor to AngelHack, and has founded several tech companies prior. You can connect with him on Twitter, Linkedin or at e@vennn.io. In high school, Elon’s 10th grade English Teacher admonished him for “soapbox writing.” He proudly remains on his soapbox to this day.
