Month: June 2015

A.I….Oh My

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Where does one begin with AI….

There are so many places it can go and so many different things it can affect, whether it’s work forces, cars, web browsing and beyond.

For the purposes of Zemoga it’s all really interesting stuff, and as usual our fascination with this technology is both out of personal curiosity but also how it applies to products we build. The biggest thing for us is machine learning. Especially because we work with a lot of retail, publication and healthcare companies.

The purpose of removing friction is a pillar for the things that we build. Every click or every movement through a site or app has to have purpose and direction. It’s so much more than just making a product “pretty”, although that helps. The idea of machine learning, like what IBM is doing with Watson, is really interesting. Not because it’ll destroy the world, but because it’ll help remove a few “clicks” in both my physical and online worlds.

That’s compelling.

Think about the routines of your day. We all have different ones, but imagine the little bits of incremental time that are consumed by your daily “clicks”. Waking up, starting your coffee, jumping in your car or taking the subway, etc. Each having varying degrees of interaction.

You see machine learning in small ways today, your watch telling you to get up and move, or Google Now saying, “time to leave in order to get to a restaurant before it closes”. These are all “small” things but they are providing bits of value that literally give you back time. Brands will get better at leveraging this tech because it means it can help them move away from being “salesy” with its’ customers. Let the AI figure out the appropriate times when, quite practically and literally, you just need a new shirt. This allows the brand to offer genuine value and rethink what it means to be “loyal”.

This AI/machine learning tech is useful because there are actual needs that we have. For a brand to better understand those moments of actual need, it helps them know the RIGHT time to talk, which is important. Most advertising is the “fishing with dynamite” model. The brand sits in a boat, lights a stick of dynamite throws it into the water, dynamite explodes and some fish float to the surface. That’s how brands currently communicate. They don’t know how to speak directly to you, they just aren’t good at it, so they have to quite literally at times disrupt your day to make sure you see them.

This is why certain types of AI are fascinating. We get hyper focused on the car or the robot, but those things are larger and visible versions that will take time. The great first step is the behind the scenes AI for our everyday lives, just removing friction. Giving us back bits of time to focus on things that matter. It’s an exciting time for sure – and the space is changing quickly- but at the end of the day we all want more time and this is why AI isn’t going anywhere.

 

The Future is Now: AI is Here

 

Artificial. Intelligence: For some, those two words conjure up images of a dystopian future, a “robot apocalypse”, set in the not-too-distant future – in a world where humans have failed and machines have prevailed.

For others, this is an opportunity for mankind to put decades of collective learning to the test, and to find out if humans can create something more intelligent and complex than ourselves.

Either way, there is no denying that this divisive issue consistently lands at the top of the “Hot Topics” list in the tech industry. It has been the topic of TEDx Talks, Hollywood films, and even Vanity Fair articles.

Whether it’s Elon Musk and Stephen Hawkings asserting that hostile AI is going to destroy the world, or Ray Kurzweil speaking of the inevitable singularity…. one thing is certain. This new technology, if approached in the right manner, has the potential to change the way we view the world and the information around us, and will most certainly impact almost every industry imaginable from agriculture and education, to finance, automotive and even medical.

The fact that great minds like these are having an extended dialogue on the topic foreshadows that this is the brave new world that this form of technology is entering into. One thing these thought-leaders can all agree on, is that we humans must tread carefully as we continue to develop and employ these game-changing technologies that could leave us in the dust once they realize that they have the ability to do so. Broadly speaking, AI will solve some major problems – not the least of which could include the eradication of disease and poverty – while causing others, which are have yet to be seen.

So… what does this mean for the general public? Over the next few weeks, Zemoga will be taking a deeper look into this exciting, but mysterious voyage that we’ve begun to embark on, and we’ll offer up different insights on how AI and machine learning can be used for the greater good. We’ll explore IBM’s Watson and similar existing technologies, while looking into our crystal Z-ball to see what’s next. Be on the lookout! Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to keep up…. or we will send our robots after you… they know where you live.