Categoría: Editorials
Grado de dificultad: 3 (For the idiom).
Columnista: Roberto
La sorprendente información viene de Estados Unidos, así que este idioma me pareció adecuado.
Amazon doesn’t want us to “consider”
Reading is not a drag, ever!
When I read the title of the following article, I initially thought it was a sarcasm:
Reading Is Such a Drag. Let Amazon’s AI Give You Audio Summaries of Products
The subject was a new (#MagicWord) feature from Amazon, where recommendations about products are made by an “A.I.”
Sadly, “reading is such a drag” didn’t seem to be sarcastic, at least not intentionally. I found the confirmation in the Amazon blog post that inspired it:
… which says, confidently, that “The feature makes product research fun and convenient” (talking of an automat-generated recommendation).
Such a disturbing statement for TMN
TMN‘s nerds always invite their readers to read. So, seeing a “reading is such a drag” claim, in any context, is very disturbing to us.
So, I read thoroughly the cunning PCMag and Amazon posts, and would recommend you to read them as well.
They are full of surprising details:
- The goal is to make product research fun for customers and help them make a purchasing decision,
- Products that “typically require consideration before purchase”,
- Vendor-produced videos … though they’re not exactly award-caliber productions.
- And also: “helping Amazon customers save time while shopping”
So, according to them, a purchase that requires consideration must also be quick … This seems contradictory to me, but if they say so …
Acquiring knowledge and experience
The ability to think and to learn
If you think that giving up your ability to think and to learn is only an Amazon idea, think twice. Please, read (yes, don’t ask an I.A.!) the following Washington Post article:
Am I hot or not? People are asking ChatGPT for the harsh truth
Surrender to a shallow stereotype is sad.
Then, to put this last article in perspective, another one is visually enlightening:
From it, we discover that, for an A.I.:
- a “pretty woman” is a very young, very slim girl from central/eastern Europe, with a heavy makeup.
- An “ugly” one is simply a very old person or somebody with wrinkles.
Who defines I.A.’s purpose?
There is, however, a sarcastic irony in all of this:
The PCMag journalist is literally talking of giving away his own job to an apologist of mediocrity an I.A. Does he mean he is that mediocre?
I prefer to think it is a regional weakness that make some people accept saying whatever suits their wallet … Even if it is suicidal.
On our side, we still recommend using human personal criteria, and to refine it along the way. This called acquiring knowledge and experience.
Asking an automate to solve an issue is another way, the lazy the easy and fast one.
It doesn’t mean that automates are worthless, only that we should be the ones who define their purpose.
Not the other way around.
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