In his undergraduate classes at Stanford University, Jehangir Amjad poses interesting questions to his students. “Was the 1969 moon landing a product of artificial intelligence?”
It may sound like science fiction or time travel, but understanding the history of AI will answer that question, he said.
“I would actually argue that. Indeed, many of the algorithms that were part of landing us on the moon were also precursors to much of what we see today.” said Amjad, a Bay Area technology executive and computer science expert. Lecturer at Stanford University. “This is essentially a precursor to similar types of ‘next, next, next generation’ algorithms.”
Amjad poses a question to the students to highlight how difficult it is to actually define “artificial intelligence.” This is becoming more difficult as technology explodes in sophistication and public awareness increases.
“The beauty and the dilemma is, ‘What is AI?’ It’s actually very difficult to define,” Amjad said.
Broad definitions and public understanding of “artificial intelligence” make it difficult for both consumers and the tech industry to parse out what is “real” AI and what is simply being promoted as such. It may become.
Swapnil Shinde, CEO and co-founder of Zeni, an AI bookkeeping software based in Los Altos, California, has seen this through his investment firm, Twin Ventures. Over the past two years, Shinde has seen a significant increase in companies seeking funding to describe themselves as “AI-enabled” or “AI-driven.” The AI market is so saturated that some “AI companies” actually use the technology in only a small portion of their products, he said.
“You can tell within a few conversations whether a startup is just building a wraparound for ChatGPT and calling it a product,” Shinde says. “If it were, it wouldn’t survive for long because it’s not a deep technology. It’s not going to solve the very serious and painful problems that humans have caused for a long time.”
AI development rush
Teresa Fesinstin said that since the beginning of 2023, she has been observing a race to implement AI technologies in the corporate world in order to remain competitive and relevant. That’s when she started her AI education company, peoplepower.ai. There, she hosts workshops, teaches organizations how to build AI, and consults on which tools are right for their needs.
At a time when everyone wants to claim cutting-edge tools, basic education in AI can help both companies and their employees navigate the world of technology, says the Norwalk, Conn.-based company. said the founder.
To appear more innovative, companies may promote basic automation or rule-based alerts as exciting new AI tools, Fesinstin said. These tools certainly use some of the foundational techniques of AI, especially when you bring up the popular buzzword term “generative AI,” which uses complex algorithms and deep learning techniques to learn, adapt, and learn. , companies may be overstating the capabilities of their tools, she said. Predict.
The pressure on businesses to stay on top of the latest and greatest technology has led some organizations to use new technology, even if they don’t have a strategy to implement and train their employees on how to best utilize AI software tools. You may end up purchasing AI software tools.
“I say it’s predatory,” Fesinstin says. “For companies, especially those who feel uncertain about what AI can and should look like, people have a fear of being left behind.”
Some technologists argue that all kinds of technology products can be marketed as AI because of the ambiguity of what is and isn’t AI. For example, predictive analytics, which uses data to predict future outcomes, may be “borderline” AI, says the founder of Intellibus, an IT and AI strategy consultancy based in Reston, Virginia. Ed Walal said.
True AI systems use algorithms to classify, analyze, and review data and make informed decisions about what to do with it based on human instructions. The “learning” aspect of these systems is how the AI gets smarter over time through neural networks that take feedback and use history to improve their ability to complete tasks over time. That’s it.
“But purists will argue that AI is just machine learning and deep learning,” he says.
“AI laundry”
While some companies seem to be promising to use AI to perform almost every task, technologists warn that today’s “real” AI has its limits. Wataru said there is a movement in the industry to “AI wash” the use of AI, or over-promise and over-promise.
An example of this could be companies that promise to build websites from scratch with AI tools, he said. ChatGPT or another AI algorithm can be used to generate code, but it cannot create a fully functional website, he said.
“You can’t require something as simple as sending an email because sending an email requires a (simple mail transfer protocol) server,” Wataru said. “Well, you could ask this AI tool to write the code for your email server as well, but you still need to host it and run it somewhere, so you can click a button and the whole app is done. It’s not as simple as that.
Amjad, who is also head of AI platform at generative AI company Ikigai, said companies sometimes overpromise and overhype AI’s ability to perform original and creative tasks.
Creativity is a very human trait, so when we start seeing claims of originality by AI, we should be skeptical.
– Jehangir Amjad, technology executive and Stanford University lecturer
Although artificial intelligence tools are better at recognizing patterns, classifying data, and generating ideas based on existing content, humans remain the source of original and creative tasks and output, he said.
“In the public imagination, people would argue that AI is creating things, but in reality it’s regurgitating things. It’s not creating, right?” Amjad said. . “And since originality is a very human trait, we should be suspicious when we start seeing claims of originality by AI.”
Wataru said it’s not the first time a new technology has captured public attention and sparked a marketing frenzy. About 10 years ago, he said, “Web3,” the concept of a decentralized internet relying on blockchain technology, quickly gained popularity.
Blockchain technology acts as a type of public ledger, where transactions and records are stored in an accessible forum. It is the basis of many cryptocurrencies, and although it has become mainstream in recent years, it has not taken the internet by storm as predicted about a decade ago.
Wataru said that the cloud is also an example of technology marketing transformation. The concept of remote servers storing information separate from hardware goes back decades, but since Apple introduced Elastic Compute Cloud in 2006, every technology company has acquired rights to the cloud. We competed in
Only time will tell whether we use the term artificial intelligence too much or too little, Amjad said.
“I think it’s very clear that the hype and the promises and the promises of the applications are actually quite real,” Amjad said. “But that doesn’t mean you might not go overboard in certain areas.”
Amjad believes that interest in AI will only continue to grow, but feels that Ikigai’s technology can prove itself amidst the hype cycle.
“Yes, it came along and captured the public’s imagination. I’m really excited about that part, but this is built on a very long tradition,” Amjad said. “And I hope that helps temper some of the expectations…The hype cycle has actually existed in AI at least twice in the past, probably in its own 50 years.”
