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'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

theguardian.com

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Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#41

Post by harrall »

gum_wobble wrote: post #14

> PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence What a time to be alive

Remember when crypto was hot and everything had crypto.

Remember the Internet was first hot and everything was iThis or Active That. iPhone still has i.

Remember… well not, me, I wasn’t alive… when radiation was cool and Radioactive was in.

Everyone always wants to be cool.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#42

Post by Sharlin »

kjkjadksj wrote: post #22
gum_wobble wrote: post #14

> PR executives say UK companies are forcing them to present ordinary automation as artificial intelligence What a time to be alive

Yup. Also ML is called AI now too at least as far as hiring managers are concerned. Adjust your resume accordingly.

ML is, obviously, AI. But not all AI is ML.

The reason the term "machine learning" was even invented was because it was one of the AI winters and an euphemism was needed because "AI" was more of a swearword than a buzzword.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#43

Post by bee_rider »

KennyBlanken wrote: post #32
kjkjadksj wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Also ML is called AI now too at least as far as hiring managers are concerned. Adjust your resume accordingly.

"now"? The appliance industry pretty much hit the "label everything AI" button...again...within months of ChatGPT taking off. Last time around was when "fuzzy logic" came out, I think?

I guess the appliance industry has dibs on the name AI anyway.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#44

Post by bee_rider »

jamwise wrote: post #11

My favourite is Allbirds that pivoted from eco friendly shoes to AI infrastructure. How do you even make that decision?

They should make an app that can identify any bird. Then they will be able to justify it: we always wanted to live up to our name, the shoes were a side quest.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#45

Post by b3ing »

2 yrs ago I saw some company raise a million dollars by saying they used AI, when what they did could easily be done with an algorithm. Many things can be algorithms, regex filters, logic or heuristics (spam detection is an example) but nowadays people want the llm to do it first, without even thinking.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#46

Post by SpicyLemonZest »

simianwords wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people are secretly wishing for AI to be like the crypto grift but are in for a rude shock when it is definitely not going to end up like that. We will see more and more companies become AI driven and produce AI products. To think otherwise is naive.

We will see more and more companies become genuinely AI driven and produce products which are actually AI. We'll also see a boom and bust cycle in companies which put an AI label on things which are not AI in any meaningful sense, and companies which build up beyond any plausible value estimate because investors desperately want anything they can call "early stage AI" in their portfolios.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#47

Post by cyphar »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #2

I'd love to read the mind of an investor that actually falls for this shit. Who actually thinks that Allbirds will see much higher returns because they "have an AI graphics division?" I like AI, but seriously, who actually invests on this basis? Where is the critical thinking? I don't feel sympathy for any investor that gets rug pulled on this stuff.

They're almost certainly hoping for a Greater Fool.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#49

Post by cryo32 »

solenoid0937 wrote: post #2

I'd love to read the mind of an investor that actually falls for this shit. Who actually thinks that Allbirds will see much higher returns because they "have an AI graphics division?" I like AI, but seriously, who actually invests on this basis? Where is the critical thinking? I don't feel sympathy for any investor that gets rug pulled on this stuff.

You think an investor gives a shit past "if they say this, the numbers will go up"? And the numbers mostly go up because everyone has the same mentality.

No one cares about the product any more. And that will be the end of all of this.

Re: 'AI washing': firms are scrambling to rebrand themselves as tech-focused

#50

Post by regexorcist »

This has been pathetic to watch in general and first hand at the companies I've been at lately. Management scrambling to find anything to throw AI to, resulting without exception in embarrassing demos. I'm excited about AI but not this whole circus.
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