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This has nothing to do with AI... Not long ago everything needed to have "built with JavaScript" stamp, now it must have AI to sell, but ...does it have electro

• eranknow 11y ago
  It uses machine learning in order to build a personalized model for each user, based on their personal habits and email communication behaviors
  • 6d6b73 11y ago
    Machine learning is not AI
    • eranknow 11y ago
      Machine learning is a type of artificial intelligence providing computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.
      • ekianjo 11y ago
        I guess the original point was that machine learning is nothing like actual intelligence, it is closer to a process of artificial model creation than anything else. "Artificial intelligence" is a term that's completely abused these days.
        • Eyas 11y ago
          Well, machine learning might not enlighten us to understand actual intelligence. There is no reason why actual intelligence can't simply be modeled by (and function like) a giant neural network. Many of us hope there is some form of symbolic intelligence deeper than just stochastic models or neural nets, but we really don't know.
        • SamBam 11y ago
          Depends on what you mean by "these days." I did an AI degree over ten years ago, and Machine Learning was certainly considered a part of AI then.
          • ekianjo 11y ago
            > Machine Learning was certainly considered a part of AI then That's part of the problem. The definition of AI is extremely loose. If by AI we actually mean "replicating the process of human intelligence through algorithms" then Machine Learning is certainly not it.
    • bonoboTP 11y ago
      That's a question of terminlogy. Nowadays AI seems to include machine learning as a subfield. It doesn't matter much. But AI is a sexy term again (after the years of the AI winter), and companies market machine learning under AI now. Also, classic AI books now include ML, not just symbolic stuff, logic, planning and graph search.
    • eranation 11y ago
      Isn't machine learning a subfield of AI? https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-artificial-intelligence-and-machine-learning https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-main-differences-between-... In any case, they are a startup, if it sells more and it is "technically correct" then it is fair game.
• carlmcqueen 11y ago
  While Machine Learning and Unsupervised vs Supervised algorithms are getting a lot of buzzwords -- language needs to exist to communicate to users what is happening. No, this isn't 'Her' level AI prioritizing your email, but unsupervised Machine Learning is often swapped with AI to help people understand there is no staff looking at your email but there is still adapting rules customized to you, automatically. I understand your frustration that is often felt about 'big data', 'AI', 'Machine learning', etc.
• TeMPOraL 11y ago
  There's tons of areas where AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used but for some reason isn't. I'm thinking about e.g. adaptive interfaces, the kind that can really be learning your habits on the fly. Think e.g. public transit app / widget that takes into account your precise location, as well as day of the week, time of the day, etc. to learn your habits and prioritize which timetables to suggest you by default (e.g. it's Wednesday evening, so you're probably coming back from work, so the default timetable will be the bus home at the stop next to work). I tried to do exactly that for an university project, it's not very hard. Even simple methods can give pretty good results. Google Now is about the first case I ever saw someone finally working on it, but it doesn't seem like it's a priority for them. My charitable guess is that they're afraid of confusing non-tech people. Hell, maybe I'll write myself a watchapp. (I started thinking a lot about this after reading a great essay by Bret Victor - http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk http://worrydream.com/#!/MagicInk)
  • x3c 11y ago
    I disagree with your assertion "There's tons of areas where that AIs, or rather, basic ML, could be used". The issue with AIs or ML or any probabilistic prediction of what user wants is that it takes away control. E.g. sorting your apps by usage. It's a solution in search of a problem. If you rearrange my apps by usage, you are asking me to search my apps everytime. It breaks my patterns and habits. And we are animals for patterns. There are some definite places where AI/ML/Adaptive algos help. Examples would be Facebook search, Apps recommendation, music recommendation, smart playlists, autocomplete and search etc. where any good tech team worth its salt is already using these techniques. It's also the reason why Knowmail or Inbox by google are not great. I go through my mail in a set pattern. I code those patterns by labels or folders and clean folder by folder. I don't need to context switch between each mail of similar definitive categories. In these mail solutions, I make decision of the context on each mail. Is it a support email or a collegue email or a mail from my priority mailing list or from a developer for tech problem? And that's why I'm thankful that AI is not being used in the tons of places that you refer. You will put me in a world where I'm living by someone else's patterns that mine own. At the risk of generalizing (but reinforcing the patterns thinking), it's a common pattern with Engineers to apply a solution on all kinds of problems without challenging the efficacy of said solutions for those problems.
• joakleaf 11y ago
  Can you define AI? Machine Learning, means that there is some sort of training/learning involved, but artificial intelligence could be anything, right?
• leesalminen 11y ago
  Electrolytes aren't what plants eat anymore ... have you seen "black water" with furvic minerals? http://www.walmart.com/ip/21090120 http://www.walmart.com/ip/21090120