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I remember laughing at people (in the late '90s) who tried to search the Internet with English-language queries: how do i cook pancakes without butter
by cryptoz 16y ago
I remember laughing at people (in the late '90s) who tried to search the Internet with English-language queries:
how do i cook pancakes without butter
vs
pancakes +"no butter"
Anyway, these days I'd obviously be wrong. I'm so impressed with the strides Google has taken to NLP, and I am fully expecting them to beat everyone to Strong AI. And why not? They know that the better they are, the better their advertising revenue will be. And they know that once they get there, even if ads are no longer profitable having the world's only AI will be incomprehensibly popular.
My one problem with this article is the last line:
"They're still not approaching the conversations you'd have as a teenager."
Google hasn't yet approached "the conversations" you'd have with a 5 year old. While Google may understand a 5-year old's conversation, it certainly couldn't participate it in and reply back to the kid.
- donaq 16y agoWhile Google may understand a 5-year old's conversation, it certainly couldn't participate it in and reply back to the kid I would argue that it sort of does. Only instead of a normal kid, it's a mute kid that can only reply to you by passing you back documents it thinks you're asking for.
- metageek 16y agoA 5-year-old librarian.
- nostrademons 16y agoIt can actually do simple facts now: http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+height+of+the+empire+state+building http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+height+of+the+emp... http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+boiling+point+of+water http://www.google.com/search?q=what+is+the+boiling+point+of+...
- cryptoz 16y agoThe answer it gives for the height of the Empire State Building is totally useless. "1,250". What?! 1,250...feet? inches? meters? centimeters?
- DisposaBoy 16y ago> I remember laughing at people (in the late '90s) who tried to search the Internet with English-language queries: how do i cook pancakes without butter vs pancakes +"no butter" Are you sure it's only the technological advance that's responsible for that? I've always written search terms like that because I figured the search engine isn't some ai that's answering my question. Instead it's a program searching a database of sorts and by searching for what I think other might have searched for I'm able to get similar results.