AI – Artificial Intelligence – is the latest tech craze. Fueled, I’m convinced, by dreams of money rolling in without having to do any work.
In well over 2 decades in the marketing world I’ve seen many fads. I don’t think AI is a fad, but I think a lot of people have latched onto it as something to sell far beyond the reality of what it is good for – at least at this point.
Maybe it’s all those science fiction movies where you can’t tell robots from people, like in the movie Blade Runner.
AI has come an amazing distance in the last few years. Google has gone all in on it. But before you join the stampede, think of all the times you’ve done a Google search, or if you’re an iPhone user, asked Siri a question, and got an answer that wasn’t just a little bit off. It couldn’t be more wrong. Like asking if the cat is gray, and getting the answer “Tuesday at 3PM.”
But lest you think I’m just condemning AI completely, ChatGPT does an amazingly good job, with good input. WITH GOOD INPUT. And you still have to read the result and edit them.
Google’s AI overviews in search results are often very good. But not always.
My big takeaways:
- Don’t turn things over to AI and let them run without human oversight.
- Recognize the limitations of what AI can and can’t do.
You can expect continued improvements. Maybe a year or five years from now, apps doing a great job with “natural language search” will be a dime and dozen.
I remember when everyone “knew” that it was impossible to make a program that would reliably recognize a piece of music. Then Shazam happened.
So fasten your seat belts and stay tuned. We are likely in store for some great surprises. But until then, in the words of Clint Eastwood, “A man’s got to know his limitations.” And a computer program too.
