AI Everywhere: Inevitable, Ubiquitous Just Like the Internet

January 28, 2015

I enjoy Sillycon Valley conflation. We have the wonderful world of artificial intelligence. Wired magazine’s “From Science Fiction to Reality: The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence.”

I learned:

There is so much potential for AI development that it’s getting harder to imagine a future without it. We’re already seeing an increase in workplace productivity thanks to AI advancements. By the end of the decade, AI will become commonplace in everyday life, whether it’s self-driving cars, more accurate weather predictions, or space exploration. We will even see machine-learning algorithms used to prevent cyber terrorism and payment fraud, albeit with increasing public debate over privacy implications. AI will also have a strong impact in healthcare advancements due to its ability to analyze massive amounts of genomic data, leading to more accurate prevention and treatment of medical conditions on a personalized level.

Yep, technology potential. When I worked at Halliburton Nuclear Utility Services in the early 1970s, that nuclear power thing had potential and still does. Think thorium today. Online information access had potential when SDC Orbit and Dialog made it easy to find citations to journal articles. Ah, potential. Think about a Bing and Google query and how much value the results list delivers.

I am okay with search results that generate ad revenue based on filtered and mostly subjective methods for determining relevance. I am okay with smart phones, smart anything really.

What is interesting to me is the assertion by Google that the Internet will just be part of the environment and invisible. If you can’t see it, and you can use information informed by smart software, life will be wonderful.

The thought I have is, “Are the Sillycon Valley wizards conflating smart software and ubiquity without explaining the implications of this happy union?”

My hunch is that what is obvious to them is that control defaults to the “owner” of the ubiquitous systems chewing through routines informed by smart software. The user may be at a disadvantage.

Just run a query and let me know if you can identify what’s missing, what’s incorrect, and what’s an ad? Do you care? I do.

Stephen E Arnold, January 28, 2015

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

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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.