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Computer, Respond to This Email

googleresearch.blogspot.com

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Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#91

Post by DaveWalk »

Zelphyr wrote: post #53
imh wrote: post #29

I appreciate the privacy standards they used (no humans reading your email to develop this), but am concerned that it's not enough. As I understand with language models, overfitting takes the form of returning a sequence of words seen in the training set. If this is overfitting in any part of the response space, this could happen. Out of a million emails, how many suggested responses are going to substantively resemb…

Much of this strikes me as a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue. Google clearly loves machine learning and doing cool things but I think lately they've been taking it too far. For example; after purchasing a book on Amazon recently I happened to do a Google search on that book and the first thing I see is, "Your book is scheduled to be delivered on..." Aside from the creepy factor I'm left wonderin…

> a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue

To me, this phrase is the essence of much of Google's features. To my discredit, I chuckled when I read the blog's phrase "we've used...deep neural networks to improve...YouTube thumbnails." I am certain this was no easy task, and a resulting technical breakthrough. But doesn't it sound kind of petty?

Of course, what's petty for one is essential for another. I wish every e-mail client had that "undo send" feature, which was just GMail whimsy years ago. Is the line between petty and essential always going to be blurred?

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#93

Post by mmanfrin »

supersan wrote: post #52

I'm often amazed how Google still gives it staff this unique hacker-like approach to their million dollar projects. For example, the stuff in Google labs (gmail) has had some silly things like don't hit send when you're drunk but sometimes very useful features which may be considered unorthodox like "Gmail telling you when it thinks you wanted to attach a file but forgot". It's something I wouldn't generally associat…

I had a similar thought with Apple -- El Cap has a feature where if you shake your mouse around, the cursor will momentarily grow in size so you can find where it is.

That does not feel like a top-down design idea, but a bottom-up feature designed by an engineer who was sick of those moments where he/she had lost the cursor.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#94

Post by anemic »

dikaiosune wrote: post #4

While the technology is very cool, this pushes me that much closer to a "dumber" email service. It's always a conflict for me as I love shiny new things, but I'd rather we let AI loose on someone else's email, especially when the AI's revenue stream is advertising (a business predicated on knowing as much as possible about your audience).

advertising becomes scary when this service tries to suggest responses like "Yes, let's have a meeting tomorrow and why not enjoy a refreshing glass of ice-cold Dr.Pepper together!". But if not, I'm not that worried about the ad revenue aspect.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#95

Post by jsolson »

DaveWalk wrote: post #91
Zelphyr wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much of this strikes me as a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue. Google clearly loves machine learning and doing cool things but I think lately they've been taking it too far. For example; after purchasing a book on Amazon recently I happened to do a Google search on that book and the first thing I see is, "Your book is scheduled to be delivered on..." Aside from the creepy factor I'm left wonderin…

> a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue To me, this phrase is the essence of much of Google's features. To my discredit, I chuckled when I read the blog's phrase "we've used...deep neural networks to improve...YouTube thumbnails." I am certain this was no easy task, and a resulting technical breakthrough. But doesn't it sound kind of petty? Of course, what's petty for one is essential for another. I…

Improving YouTube thumbnails can be a huge usability win Consider a series of lectures or DIY videos with a common setting. Pulling out a frame that captures something unique about the video (be it the DIY item being worked on in close-up or an important theorem on a title slide or blackboard) makes it easier for users to separate content and find specific items.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#96

Post by thrownaway2424 »

[deleted] wrote: post #87

[deleted]

I regret to inform you that actually it isn't really about the algorithms, it's really about the scale. A lot of these algorithms have been sitting on the shelf for many years because they are "that's neat but you'd need an insane amount of power to do that in practice" algorithms. Google connects these otherwise-useless algorithms with insane amounts of power.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#97

Post by novalis78 »

Interesting. I used a sequence to sequence methodology about 10 years ago in a chatbot that won in a self-learning competition ... of course never had the data available that google has.

A bot like that is a great tool to experiment with NLP and ML ideas. This is really an intriguing area of research.

https://thinkingai.wordpress.com/

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#98

Post by nl »

Zelphyr wrote: post #53
imh wrote: post #29

I appreciate the privacy standards they used (no humans reading your email to develop this), but am concerned that it's not enough. As I understand with language models, overfitting takes the form of returning a sequence of words seen in the training set. If this is overfitting in any part of the response space, this could happen. Out of a million emails, how many suggested responses are going to substantively resemb…

Much of this strikes me as a "just because you can, doesn't mean you should" issue. Google clearly loves machine learning and doing cool things but I think lately they've been taking it too far. For example; after purchasing a book on Amazon recently I happened to do a Google search on that book and the first thing I see is, "Your book is scheduled to be delivered on..." Aside from the creepy factor I'm left wonderin…

I love this feature.

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#99

Post by rasz_pl »

newsignup wrote: post #83
Splines wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could also do something like googlebombing. Have lots of people send each other the same question, and all of them reply with the same/similar response.

Hehe. I bet they will filter that out :)

yes, just like they filter out plagiarised copycat websites in pagerank https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10493754

Re: Computer, Respond to This Email

#100

Post by RodericDay »

sunnyps wrote: post #86
jerf wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point is that it's a plainly obvious rational argument that is the ground state of the discussion, not some brilliant insight that once it is revealed to people they're sure to see it your way. And it's not FUD to point out where money flows really come from. In fact I find myself wondering why you are so passionate about people not talking about it? It's not an invalid observation, a lie, or something irrelevant…

I'm passionate because I'm sick and tired of seeing the same nonsensical dishonest FUD memes such as "you're the product". "You're the product" is absolutely a lie, even with the most generous interpretation it implies something you own is being sold. Can you point out what thing is being sold? I'm not interested in being part of some "true HN" clique that rewards paranoia for imaginary internet points. And I'm not s…

"You are the product" means "You're actually ultimately paying for this, whether you know it or not". That's the point of advertising.
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