Sunday, May 05, 2019
The plain fact is....
Cute article about the failure of an AI-driven laundry-folding system. At best it takes 10 to 20 MINUTES to fold each item, but it fails to recognize most items.
A human folder, even a fumbling cloth-hating nerd like me, takes 10 to 20 SECONDS per item, and recognizes and HATES every item. Cloth and I are mortal enemies, so I work FAST to get rid of the horrible task.
This is typical of all AI promises. Big data can reach some pretty good conclusions sometimes, but the conclusions are NEVER going to be good enough for real work.
Take the online ads that I've been grousing about. Some of them are uniquely appropriate, but those are not the majority. The appropriate ones stand out and seem to create a pattern. It's like the schtick of "fortune tellers" and "mind readers" who use some real intuition and intelligence plus a lot of guidance. You give the "mind reader" all the information he needs to pick the correct name or incident, and you don't even realize you've provided all the info.
The plain fact is that AUTOMATION WAS COMPLETE 50 YEARS AGO. By 1970 all the industrial processes that CAN be automated practically and efficiently were ALREADY automated. Newer industrial robots continue at the same level of intelligence. All efforts to achieve "human-like" thinking have failed.
AI isn't entirely a fraud, but many of its specific promises are specific frauds.
¶ 11:55 PM 
