Artificial Intelligence: Does Search Come Up Short?
September 21, 2013
In my view, artificial intelligence continues to capture attention. In actual use—particularly in search and content processing—AI evokes from me, “Aiiiiiiii.”
I read “The Unexpected Places Where Artificial Intelligence Will Emerge.” For investors who have pumped cash into various inventions that understand meaning, the article may surprise them. The future of AI is war, Google, Netflix, Amazon, spam, surveillance, robot space explorers, and financial trading.
The only challenge for AI is its lack of consistency. Smart systems work in certain circumstances and fail miserably in others. In my ISS lectures next week, I profile a number of systems which are alleged to be incredibly smart. The reality is that the systems are often rigged to generate expected outputs. The problem of “you don’t know what you don’t know” plagues the developers of these gee-whiz systems.
Will artificial intelligence improve search? Well, AI makes search easier for those who are happy to accept system outputs. For those who need to dig deeper, AI systems often produce results which do little to provide fine-grained detail or make it easy to identify suspect results.
For a good example of AI in action, look at Google search results when you are logged in. Examine Amazon recommendations closely. Better yet, watch the TV shows and films recommended for you by Netflix.
Stephen E Arnold, September 21, 2013
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