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So have I got this right? -The state of Utah makes some kind of contract with Banjo utilizing AI to improve public safety -Banjo received a whole load of mone

So have I got this right? -The state of Utah makes some kind of contract with Banjo utilizing AI to improve public safety -Banjo received a whole load of money and -Did absolutely nothing with it. -It took the auditors a whole year to work that out. Am I being too harsh? Can anyone fill in the gaps?

mark_l_watson 5y ago
I think your summary is good. Not too off topic: since the 1980s, I have referred to symbolic AI (expert systems, non-neural NLP, etc.), neural networks, and now deep learning models as “AI” and use AGI when referring to progress towards “real AI”. I only mention this because so many people now use the term machine instead. After 40 years of using the term “AI” I don’t feel like changing. re: the article: the real story is a (allegedly, from the article) cheating contractor selling snake oil. Part of the life cycle of machine learning models is the evaluation of checking that the model stays valid in time, looking for data drift in the original training and test data, etc. That these models NEVER passed verification, is repugnant to me.
- dragontamer 5y ago
  https://www.theonion.com/revolutionary-new-driverless-car-requires-zero-function-1847048521 https://www.theonion.com/revolutionary-new-driverless-car-re... > In what many are calling the future of the automotive industry, a revolutionary driverless car unveiled Tuesday requires zero functional technology to generate profit. “While many companies in the autonomous vehicle sector have unveiled models to generate funding with little feasible technology, what sets X-Course apart is that we make money without any self-driving technology whatsoever and absolutely no plans to ever develop it,” said X-Course CEO Patrick Medill, adding that his company had shattered industry experts’ previous belief that companies could only succeed in the self-driving space by at least pretending to develop new technologies.
  - hef19898 5y ago
    Being a writer in the comedy / satire field sure got harder in the last years...
ARandomerDude 5y ago
The fact that a government bureaucracy detected fraud/waste in just one year is amazing.
- truffdog 5y ago
  The Mormons run a tight ship
  - ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
    Except with catching serial killers or pedophiles. Then its pretty fair to call us naïve.
- mumblemumble 5y ago
  My experience from working on the contractor side, and some friends' experience from working on the government side, is that the people on the ground are generally aware of it almost immediately. The real problem is that, oftentimes, rules that legislators have imposed with an ostensible purpose of preventing fraud and waste ironically make it almost impossible for anyone who cares and is close to the problem to do anything about it. In short, this idea that public servants are ineffective has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it's also a meme that is incredibly convenient for legislators and lobbyists, because it's so easy for them to co-opt for their own gain.
  - Bukhmanizer 5y ago
    > this idea that public servants are ineffective has become a self-fulfilling prophecy This is spot on and something I’ve also felt when working close to government.
bityard 5y ago
I worked in the department of defense 20 years ago and I can tell you for sure that for every news article that describes a government contract where the contractor got paid and delivered nothing, there are ten more that you don't hear about because management or even whole organizations buried them out of embarrassment and/or CYA.
kazinator 5y ago
Possible gap: -they only started digging when the past rap sheet of the CEO became known.

mark_l_watson 5y ago

I think your summary is good. Not too off topic: since the 1980s, I have referred to symbolic AI (expert systems, non-neural NLP, etc.), neural networks, and now deep learning models as “AI” and use AGI when referring to progress towards “real AI”. I only mention this because so many people now use the term machine instead. After 40 years of using the term “AI” I don’t feel like changing. re: the article: the real story is a (allegedly, from the article) cheating contractor selling snake oil. Part of the life cycle of machine learning models is the evaluation of checking that the model stays valid in time, looking for data drift in the original training and test data, etc. That these models NEVER passed verification, is repugnant to me.

dragontamer 5y ago
https://www.theonion.com/revolutionary-new-driverless-car-requires-zero-function-1847048521 https://www.theonion.com/revolutionary-new-driverless-car-re... > In what many are calling the future of the automotive industry, a revolutionary driverless car unveiled Tuesday requires zero functional technology to generate profit. “While many companies in the autonomous vehicle sector have unveiled models to generate funding with little feasible technology, what sets X-Course apart is that we make money without any self-driving technology whatsoever and absolutely no plans to ever develop it,” said X-Course CEO Patrick Medill, adding that his company had shattered industry experts’ previous belief that companies could only succeed in the self-driving space by at least pretending to develop new technologies.
- hef19898 5y ago
  Being a writer in the comedy / satire field sure got harder in the last years...

ARandomerDude 5y ago

The fact that a government bureaucracy detected fraud/waste in just one year is amazing.

truffdog 5y ago
The Mormons run a tight ship
- ghostbrainalpha 5y ago
  Except with catching serial killers or pedophiles. Then its pretty fair to call us naïve.
mumblemumble 5y ago
My experience from working on the contractor side, and some friends' experience from working on the government side, is that the people on the ground are generally aware of it almost immediately. The real problem is that, oftentimes, rules that legislators have imposed with an ostensible purpose of preventing fraud and waste ironically make it almost impossible for anyone who cares and is close to the problem to do anything about it. In short, this idea that public servants are ineffective has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. But it's also a meme that is incredibly convenient for legislators and lobbyists, because it's so easy for them to co-opt for their own gain.
- Bukhmanizer 5y ago
  > this idea that public servants are ineffective has become a self-fulfilling prophecy This is spot on and something I’ve also felt when working close to government.

bityard 5y ago

I worked in the department of defense 20 years ago and I can tell you for sure that for every news article that describes a government contract where the contractor got paid and delivered nothing, there are ten more that you don't hear about because management or even whole organizations buried them out of embarrassment and/or CYA.

kazinator 5y ago

Possible gap: -they only started digging when the past rap sheet of the CEO became known.