Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend • Hacker News Board

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#11

Post by behnamoh » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:05 PM UTC

I'm sick and tired of all these technologies that pretend to be AI, while they're just some ML or DL (DeepLearnin') algorithms going on...

Some words have become so vague and ambiguous in the computer world that sometimes I wish we would stop using them altogether, like: who is a hacker, what is AI, what is Cloud, etc.

Siri, GoogleNow, Cortana, Amazon Echo and others claim to be "intelligent" of some sort, but they're just as smart as their programmers.

Please just stop labeling your next super cool algorithm an "AI".

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#12

Post by pyrophane » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:09 PM UTC

They are already taking device pre-orders and selling coins for their own cryptocurrency, but I wouldn't give these guys any money right now. Other than blacking out our collective tech-hype bingo board, they've provided very little real information about how they intend to make any of this work.

From what they promise I'd expect their team to be stacked with AI researchers, but it looks like just a CEO, a COO and a single PhD "advisor." Who's going to actually build all this? Maybe that's why their "careers" page shows that they are looking for everything from embedded systems to ML engineers.

Seems like either a money grab or an overly idealistic founding team happy to promise the world and figure out how to deliver it later.

Edit: nathantross, you posted this and you're the COO, right? Wanna respond?

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#13

Post by pyrophane » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:13 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of all these technologies that pretend to be AI, while they're just some ML or DL (DeepLearnin') algorithms going on... Some words have become so vague and ambiguous in the computer world that sometimes I wish we would stop using them altogether, like: who is a hacker, what is AI, what is Cloud, etc. Siri, GoogleNow, Cortana, Amazon Echo and others claim to be "intelligent" of some sort, but they'r…

Exactly.

By our current definitions:

"Cloud" = hosted infrastructure.

"AI" = machine learning.

"Hacker" = programmer.

We've watered these things down to the point that they no longer have any meaning.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#14

Post by electic » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:25 PM UTC

I am going to take a step back from the technical merits of this and say the whole thing seems sad. I don't need a need a dog collar on my neck or a badge on my shirt. Lastly, you know life is over when you spend your time talking and hanging out with a AI bot. Our society has become so isolated because people are on Facebook and Instagram instead of talking to each other.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#15

Post by deadcast » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:26 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #13

behnamoh wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of all these technologies that pretend to be AI, while they're just some ML or DL (DeepLearnin') algorithms going on... Some words have become so vague and ambiguous in the computer world that sometimes I wish we would stop using them altogether, like: who is a hacker, what is AI, what is Cloud, etc. Siri, GoogleNow, Cortana, Amazon Echo and others claim to be "intelligent" of some sort, but they'r…

Exactly. By our current definitions: "Cloud" = hosted infrastructure. "AI" = machine learning. "Hacker" = programmer. We've watered these things down to the point that they no longer have any meaning.

You forgot one:

"Serverless" = server

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#16

Post by wybiral » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

electic wrote: post #14

I am going to take a step back from the technical merits of this and say the whole thing seems sad. I don't need a need a dog collar on my neck or a badge on my shirt. Lastly, you know life is over when you spend your time talking and hanging out with a AI bot. Our society has become so isolated because people are on Facebook and Instagram instead of talking to each other.

I'm not sure how to interpret the fact that you just typed this message into a textbox.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#17

Post by crashedsnow » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:27 PM UTC

behnamoh wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of all these technologies that pretend to be AI, while they're just some ML or DL (DeepLearnin') algorithms going on... Some words have become so vague and ambiguous in the computer world that sometimes I wish we would stop using them altogether, like: who is a hacker, what is AI, what is Cloud, etc. Siri, GoogleNow, Cortana, Amazon Echo and others claim to be "intelligent" of some sort, but they'r…

I agree the term has become somewhat throw-away, but to be fair any AI system probably IS just ML/DL algorithms. That is, ML/DL are avenues to create AI. I think most people would agree that AlphaGo is an example of AI and was achieved via DL, so by that definition it's just some DL algorithms.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#18

Post by iampims » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:29 PM UTC

Really curious about how this will pan out as everything said in the article screams at me like someone has no clue how difficult making the device is going to be, regardless of how much ”AI” runs on it.

Hardware is really hard.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#19

Post by behnamoh » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:43 PM UTC

crashedsnow wrote: post #17

behnamoh wrote: post #11

I'm sick and tired of all these technologies that pretend to be AI, while they're just some ML or DL (DeepLearnin') algorithms going on... Some words have become so vague and ambiguous in the computer world that sometimes I wish we would stop using them altogether, like: who is a hacker, what is AI, what is Cloud, etc. Siri, GoogleNow, Cortana, Amazon Echo and others claim to be "intelligent" of some sort, but they'r…

I agree the term has become somewhat throw-away, but to be fair any AI system probably IS just ML/DL algorithms. That is, ML/DL are avenues to create AI. I think most people would agree that AlphaGo is an example of AI and was achieved via DL, so by that definition it's just some DL algorithms.

>> ...any AI system probably IS just ML/DL algorithms...

I don't think so. ML/DL is just the beginning. Better AI solutions will be discovered in the future. Note that computer neural networks are just simulations of some reality, they're not complete yet. Many intricacies are still to be researched on.

Re: Forget virtual assistants, Asteria wants to be your AI friend

#20

Post by zachlatta » Sat, Sep 24, 2016, 4:46 PM UTC

electic wrote: post #14

I am going to take a step back from the technical merits of this and say the whole thing seems sad. I don't need a need a dog collar on my neck or a badge on my shirt. Lastly, you know life is over when you spend your time talking and hanging out with a AI bot. Our society has become so isolated because people are on Facebook and Instagram instead of talking to each other.

Disagree. Growing up on the internet gave me a sense of community and belonging that I never found in my hometown.

The internet and social media can both be incredibly connecting things (that is their purpose after all, right?).