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Pretty sure a non-zero number of AI/ML startups were actually just feeding data to humans, at least at the start.
by eli 5y ago
Pretty sure a non-zero number of AI/ML startups were actually just feeding data to humans, at least at the start.
- AndyNemmity 5y agocan confirm a few examples. the key is at the start though, they all made it there over some time.
- spaetzleesser 5y ago“At least at the start” is possibly ok if you have a path forward to get to your goal. Theranos had no path.
- spiffytech 5y ago> “At least at the start” is possibly ok if you have a path forward to get to your goal. Only if you're not misrepresenting your capabilities to investors or customers.
- AndyNemmity 5y agoIt's tricky. If you're saying what you will do, and show it as it should look, while you continue to develop it really working, and it's not endangering health like in the case of Theranos, I have a hard time seeing the issue. I've never been in a situation where it literally didn't work though over time, and before customer usage.
- spiffytech 5y agoThere was a story earlier this year about a startup that had a government contract to detect crime using AI, but turned out not to actually have any AI technology, instead appearing to pass tasks to humans: https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkd7pk/banjo-ai-surveillance-utah-contract https://www.vice.com/en/article/pkd7pk/banjo-ai-surveillance...
- woeirua 5y agoThis is not a problem if you're transparent about what you're doing. If you say, the AI/ML will do this, but we're still perfecting the algorithm so we have humans assist it right now. No problem.
- HWR_14 5y agoThere was just a report on HN about Expensify doing that. I don't know if they switched to AI, or if it's still just people.