AI Products and common Misconceptions

Artificial Intelligence(AI) is the most common buzzword heard these days. People attach this word to any product to sell it. The tech companies have started to acquire and launch more of the AI related products and startups, these companies include Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and many more .

A human brain is represented by it’s INTELLIGENCE, and the term Artificial Intelligence means replicating the Human Brain in a machine. This is not yet achieved since the human brain being complex is very hard to replicate. However extensive research in this field is in progress.

Nowadays a lot of products claim to be AI driven, but none of it is true as of yet.

AI products could be categorized in 3 ways as follows:

1. Simple Repetitive Movements - The movements are user defined and the AI has to just follow the instructions hard coded by the user. An example of this would be the mechanical arms that are used in Industries for Automation.

2. Search and Guess - The movements depend on the previous experience that the machine has. For example the Roomba Cleaning Bot, learns about the structure of the room by bumping into objects and walls.

3. Answer Suggestion and Provision - The suggestion is given to the user on the basis of the previous user input and there is provision of deleting an entry so as to correct the suggestions. For Example YouTube suggests more videos on the basis of the videos previously watched.

Limitations of these AI would include

1. An algorithm will only work when either data is provided as the previous actions or training data is provided. In many cases the learned model does not generalize well.

2. Even the best trained models lack the ability to make a smart meta decision. Therefore in most cases it can be successful in a very narrow direction.

Most people have heard about the Amazon Alexa, but very few people know the faults in it. When Alexa is installed, most people give it access to all their systems in the house, including electrical, telephonic, etc. Many people also link their bank accounts in order to make payments easier. A 6-year-old girl named Brooke Neitzel ordered a $170 Kidcraft dollhouse and four pounds of cookies through Amazon Alexa -- simply by asking Alexa for the products, without the permission of any adult. That is not all, While Oliver Haberstroh, a resident of Hamburg, Germany, was out one night, his Alexa randomly began playing loud music at 1:50 a.m. He had to pay huge fines for the same. Alexa is connected to all the websites, including adult websites, and the voice activation and recognition feature is not perfect to be used by an Indian Audience especially by children or old people. It happens so that at times Alexa misunderstands the terms and starts playing such adult content in front of toddlers.

This was all about Alexa but that doesn’t mean that all the other so called AIs are better. Microsoft’s Twitter Chatbot started to learn from the wrong sources and ended up being Pro Hitler and Anti-Feminist calling feminism as a cancer.

The Google Brain that was supposed to make low resolution photos clear started to convert these photos of the people into photos of various monsters.

In conclusion, the AI buzz word is being used to lure in people into buying products that do not necessarily have the intelligence to help but can also cause trouble for the users. So think before you buy.