'I've Seen the Future of Consumer AI, and it Doesn't Have One' (theregister.co.uk)

Andrew Orlowski of The Register recounts all the gadgets supercharged with AI that he came across at IFA tradeshow last week -- and wonders what value AI brought to the table. He writes: I didn't see a blockchain toothbrush at IFA in Berlin last week, but I'm sure there was one lurking about somewhere. With 30 vast halls to cover, I didn't look too hard for it. But I did see many things almost as tragic that no one could miss -- AI being squeezed into almost every conceivable bit of consumer electronics. But none were convincing. If ever there was a solution looking for a problem, it's ramming AI into gadgets to show of a company's machine learning prowess. For the consumer it adds unreliability, cost and complexity, and the annoyance of being prompted.

[...] Back to LG, which takes 2018's prize for sticking AI into a superfluous gadget. The centrepiece of its AI efforts this year is a robot, ClOi. Put Google Assistant or Alexa on wheels, and you have ClOi. I asked the booth person what exactly ClOi could do to be told "it can take notes for your shopping list." Why wasn't this miracle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution let loose on the LG floor? I wondered -- a question answered by this account of ClOi's debut at CES in January. Clearly things haven't improved much -- this robot buddy was kept indoors.

Comments

Re:OP must be joking...

[AHuxley]

Re "face detection" is not AI. Its a really big and fast database. Filled with faces the police know about and random people walking past CCTV.
Re "fuzzy logic controllers in washing machines" A set amount of power, water, weight of laundry is not AI. Just good programming within set limits.
Re "'finding directions" with maps that are created and set.
Re "recommendation algorithms" that is set by past people buying things and another person showing the same interests. More to do with collecting lots of human data sets than any need for AI.
OCR for cheques is all about the years of math getting OCR to work.
Re "thermostats" The human likes a set range of temperatures and their heating cooling system can only be so responsive.
Re "robot vacuum cleaners and lawn mowers" only have a small area to go around and ensure they don't go back over the same areas again and again. No AI needed for that map.
Re "medical diagnosis" is full of work done by decades and generations of really skilled humans. Educate humans to the same level in the best teaching hospitals and that quality is not hard to get. Using well educated humans.
Another AI winter https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... is the result of all the years of AI work. Every generation attempts to do AI and then gets to rediscover the same AI hype insights.