The theme for this month’s newsletter and blogs is “Don’t wait.” Now that the election is over, many leaders in many companies are waiting to see what changes the new administration might bring.
Whatever you do, don’t rely on artificial intelligence to make your predictions for you.
The AI Myth
There is an enormous difference between the artificial intelligence portrayed in science fiction and the current AI reality we’re living with. Unfortunately, the science fiction portrayal can give someone the idea that artificial intelligence can actually reason and think.
These ideas came from “characters” such as the evil mechanical invader force in the Terminator films. This force originates with a neural network called Skynet, which gains self-awareness and launches a nuclear attack on humankind, wiping it out. Individual terminators are able to deduce where their prey is located and hunt them down. Another self-aware computing device is the famous HAL-9000 from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Because of these and many films and books like them, some predict that artificial intelligence will eventually be able to think and act like humans.
Those who actually understand artificial intelligence, though, know that these predictions are highly unlikely. Why? Because, like any computing platform, AI must be programmed. It cannot reason or think beyond the data programmed into it—and that data is programmed in by humans. AI can only perform actions programmed into it. It is incapable of originating thoughts or actions on its own.
Relying on AI
With this in mind, then, it becomes clear why relying on AI is a risky proposition. When you ask AI to perform a task, such as writing an essay or creating an animation, it is totally constricted by the data and the algorithms that have been programmed into it. This is so true that lawsuits have actually been filed against people using AI to create songs “in the style of” famous artists. The reason for these suits is that the AI could not have created such pieces if they hadn’t been programmed with the artist’s original songs to begin with. Therefore, it is actually plagiarism.
Now, we come back to relying on AI to predict the future and why you should not do that. Let’s say you’re using AI to calculate the direction the economy will take in the next six months to a year. AI can only make such predictions based on past statistics and events with which it has been programmed. It can certainly come up with likely scenarios, but this is if—and this is a big if—the data that has been input into AI is accurate.
You never know who programmed that AI. You never know if they were biased in one direction or another and only entered statistics or data that agreed with their own point of view. Therefore, using AI to predict the future is always going to be a risk.
Use Your Own Data
For any company that has had a period of success, data will be known about what marketing and sales campaigns were successful. Marketing will know what kinds of customers can be attracted to purchase its products or services. In other words, your business is already armed with the data it needs in order to lay out a successful strategy.
So there is no need to wait to see which direction the economy will go, and certainly no need to rely on AI to predict the future.
To learn more, sign up at SELLability.com.
Recent Comments