Is Google Imitating IBM?
October 29, 2015
I find the stampede to machine learning, artificial intelligence, and smart software somewhat underwhelming. The efforts of programmers to make software and systems less like their mainframe antecedents has been an objective for decades.
What’s changed?
The need to come up with a buzzword, zippy notion, or catchy phrase for software that leaves the command line behind along with the dependence on the user to know what he or she wants.
I chuckled along with the PCWorld write up “Google Says It’s ‘Rethinking Everything’ around Machine Learning.” I noted this statement:
it’s not hard to imagine where it might turn up. He [Google wizard] mentioned machine learning in the context of mobile, for example, where machine learning could determine if a user is at work, at home or in their car, so that their phone can deliver information accordingly.
Yep, information along with ads. Eliminating expensive humans in the process may also be helpful. But I think the elephant in the write up is the need for the Alphabet Google thing to generate high margin revenue from advertising.
The article included this statement which may explain the “uncertain future” some Google wizards perceive:
Not all was rosy, though. Aggregate paid clicks—the number of times Google made money when a user clicked on an advertisement—increased 23 percent from a year earlier, but the amount of money Google received for each click dropped by 11 percent, continuing a downward trend from the past several quarters.
But what about Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and other firms racing forward with smart software. My hunch is that the company which generates the most revenue from smart software will be the winner. The hypothetical examples, whether the practical Google stuff or the absolutely out there examples from outfits like IBM, will define artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, or whatever jargon slapped on a development direction discernible even to the slower Natty Bumpo’s in the digital forest.
Stephen E Arnold, October 29, 2015
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