The current hottest technology — a type of artificial intelligence that generates human-like text and images — sometimes delivers an immediate “aha!” moment. But often it doesn’t.
I’ve had some disappointing experiences when asking ChatGPT for help with planning a holiday (maybe you have too). Recently, I couldn’t remember the name of a pastry, so I tried to describe it to three different AI chatbots without success (the pastry was a frangipane tart).
These disappointments don’t mean that AI isn’t useful — it can be useful — but there’s often a mismatch between the reality of AI and what companies encourage us to think of as a magical mind that knows everything and can do everything.
The truth is, AI is fundamentally bad at many tasks. To get the most out of it, you need to learn the right language. Like all computers, AI makes mistakes, though they don’t make the same mistakes as humans do. And sometimes the AI you force on you is just broken.
The lesson here is to understand well what AI can and can’t do, so you don’t get disappointed.
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It’s also helpful to see patterns where companies fall back when AI doesn’t work as well as they hoped. They know AI isn’t magic, and neither should you. Here are some examples:
• Nine months ago, Amazon announced a new AI for its Alexa voice assistant. But the AI Alexa got the questions wrong multiple times in demos, and it’s still not available on Alexa home devices. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
Some at Amazon are worried the new Alexa won’t make it to its September launch date because the voice assistant is still giving unpredictable responses, my colleague Caroline O’Donovan recently reported.
Amazon said it is testing the new Alexa with a small group of customers and is working hard to make it available to a wider audience.
(Apple announced this month that a completely revamped AI version of Siri will be coming to some new iPhone models later this year. We’ll have to wait and see.)
• Microsoft last month made much noise when it unveiled a new line of AI personal computers that included a Time Machine feature that records everything you do on your PC, but the company has now disabled the feature by default after some researchers said it was a security nightmare.
Microsoft also scaled back its much-touted AI keyboard button and stopped including chatbots on Windows PCs for chores like changing screen brightness (Microsoft said it was responding to feedback that people didn’t like having chatbots mixed in with other tasks, like settings).
• Last month, Google scaled back AI-generated answers that appear at the top of web search results after some of the answers were nonsensical or dangerous. This marks at least the third time that Google has admitted that its AI doesn’t work very well, including a now-disabled AI feature that generated ahistorical images such as female popes.
AI’s pattern of setbacks and frangipane-like disappointments calls for a refresh of how companies market their technology and user expectations.
First, companies should be upfront about the fact that AI is useful for some things, but not all things, especially when it comes to factual information: For example, AI shouldn’t be used to find out how tall the Eiffel Tower is, or who won the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Second, when companies publicly demonstrate AI, they will need to show error rates or back up any surprising claims.
Independent researchers recently questioned OpenAI’s claim that ChatGPT could pass the bar exam with a higher score than nearly all test-takers, and challenged the idea that chatbots can write software code like skilled humans. (OpenAI did not respond to my request for comment.)
Finally, it’s important to realize that your imagination may surpass the capabilities of the AI.
In a recent interview with NPR affiliate KCRW, host Madeline Bland asked me about the household chores I’d like an AI to do for me: Could an AI tell me from your calendar that your mom’s birthday is coming up and order flowers to be delivered to her house?
Unfortunately, I am not currently aware of any widely available AI that can perform this task.
You know from life experience that technology is great, but it’s rarely a panacea, and AI is no different.
