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Template:M intro technology rumours of our demise: Difference between revisions
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, 19 November 2023→If AI is just a cheapest-to-deliver strategy you are doing it wrong
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Digression over. | Digression over. | ||
=== If AI is | === If AI is a cheapest-to-deliver strategy you are doing it wrong === | ||
{{quote| | {{quote| | ||
{{D|Cheapest-to-deliver|/ˈʧiːpɪst tuː dɪˈlɪvə/|adj}} | {{D|Cheapest-to-deliver|/ˈʧiːpɪst tuː dɪˈlɪvə/|adj}} | ||
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Commercial algorithms need only follow a ''[[cheapest to deliver]]'' strategy: they “[[satisfice]]”. Being targeted primarily at revenue optimisation, they will tend to converge upon what is likely to be popular, because that is easier to find. Rather than scanning the entire depth of human content, skim the top and keep the punters happy enough. | Commercial algorithms need only follow a ''[[cheapest to deliver]]'' strategy: they “[[satisfice]]”. Being targeted primarily at revenue optimisation, they will tend to converge upon what is likely to be popular, because that is easier to find. Rather than scanning the entire depth of human content, skim the top and keep the punters happy enough. | ||
This, by the way, has been the tale of the collaborative internet: despite Chris | This, by the way, has been the tale of the collaborative internet: despite [[Chris Anderson]]’s wishful forecast in 2006 that universal interconnectedness would change economics forever<ref>[[The Long Tail: How Endless Choice is Creating Unlimited Demand]] ''(2006)''</ref> — that suddenly it would be costless to service the long tail of global demand, prompting some kind of explosion in cultural diversity, what happened in practice has been the exact opposite. The overriding imperative of scale obliterated the subtle appeal of diversity, while the world’s sudden, unprecedented interconnectedness had the [[system effect]] of ''homogenising demand''. Not only was it still easier to target the fat head than the thin tail, but ''the tail itself got thinner''.<ref>{{author|Anita Elberse}}’s [[Blockbusters: Why Big Hits and Big Risks are the Future of the Entertainment Business|''Blockbusters'']] is excellent on this point. </ref> | ||
A [[cheapest-to-deliver]] strategy will have had the counter-intuitive effect of ''truncating'' the “[[long tail]]” of consumer choice. As the long tail contracts, the commercial imperative to target common denominators gets stronger. ''This is a highly undesirable feedback loop''. It will homogenise ''us''. We will become less diverse. We will become more [[Antifragile|fragile]]. | |||
Now if artificial intelligence is so spectacular, shouldn’t we be a bit more ambitious about what ''it'' could do for ''us''? Isn’t “giving you the bare minimum you’ll take to keep stringing you along” a bit ''underwhelming''? | |||
====LibraryThing as a model==== | |||
A sensible use for this technology would create [[system effect]]<nowiki/>s to ''extend'' the long tail. | |||
It isn’t hard to imagine how this might work. A rudimentary version exists in {{Plainlink|https://www.librarything.com/|LibraryThing}}’s recommendation engine. It isn’t even wildly clever '''—''' {{Plainlink|https://www.librarything.com/|LibraryThing}} has been around for nearly twenty years and doesn’t, as far as I know, use AI: each user lists, by ASIN, the books in her personal library. She can rate them, review them, and the LibraryThing algorithm will compare each users’s virtual “library” with all the other user libraries on the site and list the users with the most similar library. The non-matched books from libraries of similar users are often a revelation. , but the scope if it did, is huge. | |||
A rudimentary version | |||
====This is something humans cannot do==== | ====This is something humans cannot do==== | ||