Today I decided to take on a new project. Develop some sort of software. The first place I turned to was the news. The undoubtedly big trends were neural networks, deep learning, AI etc. I started looking at how they are currently implemented in our day to day lives.
While reading this article, I noticed that the advert on the top of the page was for some new cryptocurrency ICO. The reason is that I am writing a paper on crypto for my university and google is obviously using my search history and machine learning to predict what I would like advertised. A few weeks ago when I had the flu, I did a google maps search for a doctor in my area; same story. I was shown adverts for doctors and medication for the next while. I've found that 90% of the time I am not interested in what the adverts show but that's not the point here.
After the news I turned to the google play store to see if I could find an idea for a new app. Low and behold, 90% of the apps shown for me to download were based of my previous searches. It becomes tiring seeing things you know. The internet is vast yet we only get familiar content shoved in our faces. I have to take more time than ever to find something new and interesting on the play store, youtube, amazon, ebay and many other sites. Fresh, upcoming, original content is being bombarded by stupid suggestions that are majorantly out of date and not relevant to my day.
To progress we need to innovate and discover new things. After an hour of searching for inspiration I have found nothing except familiar content I have seen a million times.
Googles AI does not account for our human-ness, the need to explore and discover.
Image from express UK