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Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

newyorker.com

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Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#11

Post by dtjones »

mostly_harmless wrote: post #10
dtjones wrote: post #9

>Even Google, the champion of algorithms, employs substantial human adjustments to make its search engines perform just right. The author doesn't have a solid grasp on machine learning. The 'human adjustments' provide feedback to the algorithm, which the algorithm then uses to update and improve performance. His tone implies its a bad thing to use human feedback.

Ideally, it would be a completely automated system. You don't need to understand machine learning to know that it would be better for the computer to do everything itself without human intervention

It is completely automated. It automatically incorporates human/user feedback into ranking.

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#13

Post by unknownian »

dtjones wrote: post #11
mostly_harmless wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ideally, it would be a completely automated system. You don't need to understand machine learning to know that it would be better for the computer to do everything itself without human intervention

It is completely automated. It automatically incorporates human/user feedback into ranking.

Even the startingly accurate Chrome predictions?

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#14

Post by DannyBee »

mostly_harmless wrote: post #10
dtjones wrote: post #9

>Even Google, the champion of algorithms, employs substantial human adjustments to make its search engines perform just right. The author doesn't have a solid grasp on machine learning. The 'human adjustments' provide feedback to the algorithm, which the algorithm then uses to update and improve performance. His tone implies its a bad thing to use human feedback.

Ideally, it would be a completely automated system. You don't need to understand machine learning to know that it would be better for the computer to do everything itself without human intervention

?? It doesn't require human intervention.

Simplified: Machine learning algorithm constructs page to show human.

Humans click on this or that on page.

Click data is fed into algorithm.

Algorithm uses this data decide how to show better page to humans

You are taking human input. It is still completely automated, it requires no human intervention.

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#16

Post by SquidMagnet »

scott_s wrote: post #3

In other realms, we don't call this data but intelligence . Humans will still make the decisions, but in more and more places, the decisions are more likely to be informed by data (intelligence). Consider that Netflix's data is tiny compared to the amount of data that any government must sift through. Algorithms don't make government decisions, people do. But they (hopefully) base those decisions based on intelligenc…

I am not entirely sure what you are saying here, but the way I have always understood it is: data is knowledge; the ability to apply knowledge is intelligence.

Netflix has a considerable amount of data (knowledge) and its algorithms exemplify some efforts to apply that knowledge (intelligence). As it stands presently, though, humans still tend to be more intelligent than any algorithms we have created. (Generally speaking, of course.)

I think we are trying to say the same things here, right?

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#17

Post by abandonliberty »

ljd wrote: post #4

I see this argument akin to something along the lines of, "A website is really a human because someone needs to maintain it and make decisions on it's appearance." You are describing a tool. People don't say hammers are humans, either. Netflix's special algorithm is indeed an algorithm.

I was really hoping Netflix had a secret warehouse filled with hundreds of workers whose job was to provide recommendations based on what you like, a la 'invisible boyfriend' [1]

Sadly, they just have people on the quest for the perfect hammer.

[1]http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2015/01/...

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#18

Post by CHY872 »

mostly_harmless wrote: post #10
dtjones wrote: post #9

>Even Google, the champion of algorithms, employs substantial human adjustments to make its search engines perform just right. The author doesn't have a solid grasp on machine learning. The 'human adjustments' provide feedback to the algorithm, which the algorithm then uses to update and improve performance. His tone implies its a bad thing to use human feedback.

Ideally, it would be a completely automated system. You don't need to understand machine learning to know that it would be better for the computer to do everything itself without human intervention

How so? If the cost of making the computer able to do everything itself is greater than the cost of an equivalent system that takes human input, then you should use the human input version every time.

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#19

Post by boomzilla »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #6

Hollywood Video's corporate office had a guy, one guy whose job it was to just watch movies. He'd watch them, make sure it was categorized properly, then create associations with other movies that "you might like" if you like this movie, and vice versa. All kept in a spreadsheet that we later plugged in. We also thought there should be an algorithm, but he was pretty dang good at what he did.

It's simple ROI. There is not that many movies this is a task that one doesn't need to scale with computers. Hiring a guy is likely much cheaper than investing on the software. Plus I am sure there are plenty of people who would like to watch movies for their day jobs.

On the other hand, I am pretty sure there is at least some degree of automated video classification at Youtube.

Re: Netflix’s Secret Special Algorithm Is a Human

#20

Post by muaddirac »

SquidMagnet wrote: post #16
scott_s wrote: post #3

In other realms, we don't call this data but intelligence . Humans will still make the decisions, but in more and more places, the decisions are more likely to be informed by data (intelligence). Consider that Netflix's data is tiny compared to the amount of data that any government must sift through. Algorithms don't make government decisions, people do. But they (hopefully) base those decisions based on intelligenc…

I am not entirely sure what you are saying here, but the way I have always understood it is: data is knowledge; the ability to apply knowledge is intelligence. Netflix has a considerable amount of data (knowledge) and its algorithms exemplify some efforts to apply that knowledge (intelligence). As it stands presently, though, humans still tend to be more intelligent than any algorithms we have created. (Generally spe…

I assumed they were using the other meaning of intelligence, as in "signal intelligence"
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