AI Becomes the Next Big Big Thing with New New Jargon

October 19, 2023

Note: This essay is the work of a real and still-alive dinobaby. No smart software involved, just a dumb humanoid.

“The State of AI Engineering” is a jargon fiesta. Note: The article has a pop up that wants the reader to subscribe, which is interesting. The approach is similar to meeting a company rep at a trade show booth and after reading the signage, saying to the rep, “Hey, let’s do a start up together right now.) The main point of the article is to provide some highlights from the AI Summit Conference. Was there much “new” new? Judging from the essay, the answer is, “No.” What was significant, in my opinion, was the jargon used to describe the wonders of smart software and its benefits for mankind (themkind?)

Here are some examples:

1,000X AI engineer. The idea with this euphonious catchphrase is that a developer or dev will do so much more than a person coding alone. Imagine a Steve Gibson using AI to create the next SpinRite. That decade of coding shrinks to a mere 30 days!

AI engineering. Yep, a “new” type of engineering. Forget building condos that do not collapse in Florida and social media advertising mechanisms. AI engineering is “new” new I assume.

Cambrian explosion. The idea is that AI is proliferating in the hot house of the modern innovator’s environment. Hey, mollusks survived. The logic is some AI startups will too I assume.

Evals. This is a code word from determining if a model is on point or busy doing an LSD trip with ingested content. The takeaway is that no one has an “eval” for AI models and their outputs’ reliability.

RAG or retrieval augmented generation. The idea is that RAG is a way to make AI model outputs better. Obviously without evals, the RAGs’ value may be difficult to determine, but I am not capturing the jargon to criticize what is the heir to the crypto craziness and its non fungible token thing.

I am enervated. Imagine AI will fix enterprise search, improve Oracle Endeca’s product search, and breathe new life into IBM’s AI dreams.

Stephen E Arnold, October 19, 2023

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under AI, Business strategy, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.