Your Intelligent Digital Assistant Will Never Come
The New York Times reports that everyone was stunned by the inability of big data to correctly predict the presidential election outcome.
The Data Said Clinton Would Win, Why You Shouldn't Have Believed It
This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier writing on the shortcomings of big data.
The Data Said Clinton Would Win, Why You Shouldn't Have Believed It
This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier writing on the shortcomings of big data.
Large amounts of data can crystallize patterns but it can’t predict the future. All the polling models were based on assumptions from historical patterns. But what happens when there is something new that doesn’t have a precedent? All that data is as useless as Hillary Clinton’s celebration fireworks. To guess the future, you have to augment the data with human intellect to figure out what’s really going on. The data is like a body without a soul.
Only the human soul is able to take that leap off the cliff of historical performance and imagine the alternate reality of the future. Because that is really what is required. We humans have the ability to create mirror images of our world in our heads where the impossible happens. The “impossible” being that which has never happened before. There is no prior pattern for this event so it will never naturally occur. Machines can never predict it.
Because humans have the capacity to imagine an alternate reality they can create the blueprint to changing the real world. And not only that, we can create multiple alternate realities simultaneously and evaluate between them what is most likely, desirable, or abhorrent. All within seconds. When a machine can dream, it’ll be ready to claim real intelligence.
Google is headed into dangerous territory if it hitches it’s wagon to the star of intelligent assistance too prominently. Intelligent assistance is great but it’s forever destined to regularly disappoint us. If the tide of public opinion starts to become disillusioned with AI, Google by extension is in big trouble. What happens when people get tired of waiting for that magical digital assistant they are promised every year but it never seems to come? Oh, we’ll get plenty of digital assistants, but they’ll all be dumb. Once AI’s bubble bursts, Google products will be seen as marketing hype with no substance.
Google’s problem is one of expectations not accomplishments. They are setting themselves up for failure by promising something that they can never deliver. The drawback to the human soul’s ability to create an alternate reality is that often the more we get, the more we want. Therefore, we are never happy with what we have. As Google’s Assistant slowly evolves it will feed everyone’s idea of what it should be. But our imaginations will always run much faster than Google’s ability to provide.
Google’s market will put up with it for a short while assuming that it’s just around the corner. But eventually, reality will set in that devices will never match the intellect of even a four year old child. And as such, you’ll forever need to keep an eye on it and make sure it stays out of trouble. Or worse, make sure that it doesn’t get YOU into trouble.
I’m not saying that Google should stop pursuing their goal of using data to help make people’s lives better. Even privacy-minded Apple has this as a worthy goal. But Apple learned their lesson early on with Siri that making tall claims does no one any good. Again, I’m just saying that Google needs to start managing expectations better. Or they’re going to ruin it for everyone.
Only the human soul is able to take that leap off the cliff of historical performance and imagine the alternate reality of the future. Because that is really what is required. We humans have the ability to create mirror images of our world in our heads where the impossible happens. The “impossible” being that which has never happened before. There is no prior pattern for this event so it will never naturally occur. Machines can never predict it.
Because humans have the capacity to imagine an alternate reality they can create the blueprint to changing the real world. And not only that, we can create multiple alternate realities simultaneously and evaluate between them what is most likely, desirable, or abhorrent. All within seconds. When a machine can dream, it’ll be ready to claim real intelligence.
Google is headed into dangerous territory if it hitches it’s wagon to the star of intelligent assistance too prominently. Intelligent assistance is great but it’s forever destined to regularly disappoint us. If the tide of public opinion starts to become disillusioned with AI, Google by extension is in big trouble. What happens when people get tired of waiting for that magical digital assistant they are promised every year but it never seems to come? Oh, we’ll get plenty of digital assistants, but they’ll all be dumb. Once AI’s bubble bursts, Google products will be seen as marketing hype with no substance.
Google’s problem is one of expectations not accomplishments. They are setting themselves up for failure by promising something that they can never deliver. The drawback to the human soul’s ability to create an alternate reality is that often the more we get, the more we want. Therefore, we are never happy with what we have. As Google’s Assistant slowly evolves it will feed everyone’s idea of what it should be. But our imaginations will always run much faster than Google’s ability to provide.
Google’s market will put up with it for a short while assuming that it’s just around the corner. But eventually, reality will set in that devices will never match the intellect of even a four year old child. And as such, you’ll forever need to keep an eye on it and make sure it stays out of trouble. Or worse, make sure that it doesn’t get YOU into trouble.
I’m not saying that Google should stop pursuing their goal of using data to help make people’s lives better. Even privacy-minded Apple has this as a worthy goal. But Apple learned their lesson early on with Siri that making tall claims does no one any good. Again, I’m just saying that Google needs to start managing expectations better. Or they’re going to ruin it for everyone.
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