from CFACT
The news is full of predictions of explosive growth in electricity consumption due to artificial intelligence. I wondered what all this artificial intelligence would be used for, but then it occurred to me. Artificial intelligence can transform our personal computers from search to research. I realize this is futuristic, so please read it that way.
The basic idea is very simple. Now, when you want to know something, you first search. You'll get a bunch of snippets and links to possible files. So you just go find the best ones and read them. If your question is fairly broad, you'll probably read quite a bit by piecing together the answer. Your computer does the search, and then you do the research.
What if the AI did the research and reported the answers to you? That seems entirely possible; in fact, it seems to be what these new AI engines do best.
When you think about it, we did a lot of research.
Shopping may be at the top of the list. So the query might be to find me the cheapest thing within a specified distance. For example, a specific car within 300 miles, or a specific pizza within 5 miles. We do this often. Or the best price from all online stores, which would take me endless hours.
Then there’s the search over time. Most stores run promotions on and off. For example, the price of a specific item on Amazon can change significantly over time, including briefly appearing to be a falsely low price.
Your artificial intelligence shoppers can spend all your time spotting sales effortlessly. You could even place buy low orders like today's automated stock buying software, but your instructions were much more complex.
Then, there are reading reviews and reviews of the product or service. Online reviews are a great addition to your shopping experience, but reading and digesting them can be time-consuming. Artificial intelligence can do this, but today’s systems may not. The problem is that people don't agree. Some people like it, some don't, and everyone has a reason.
This brings us to a key question, how does artificial intelligence handle disagreement? Much of our day-to-day research involves evaluating competing viewpoints, but I have yet to see a conversational AI product do this well, or even at all.
Many of the things we want to know are controversial. Products, services, politics and policy, sports, diet and health, parenting and education, news, science, law and regulations, and more. This is a serious weakness.
Perhaps problem analysis will be the next big thing in artificial intelligence. It may require new programming or training, or both, because of the unique structure of the problem. See my “The Structure of Complex Issues”: https://www.cfact.org/2020/11/17/the-struct-of-complex-issues/. It can also track the evolution of issues over time.
Back to basics, the World Wide Web just celebrated its 30th birthday. It makes searching and research an important part of everyday life. Computers perform searches and we study the results of those searches. There are two types of research – fact finding and problem analysis.
If artificial intelligence can complete some research, this may bring significant changes to our lives. However, this change will require a lot of electricity. Some projections of AI electricity usage are mind-boggling, as they account for as much as 20% of U.S. electricity usage.
I haven't seen these AI growth models, so I don't know how realistic they are. They were probably too fast. Technology is not just material; it is people using things, and it takes a long time to develop. If artificial intelligence can do some of our research, it will definitely grow.
It would be very useful if artificial intelligence could do our basic research. It frees us up to do other things, such as thinking and more advanced research, or even relaxing. stay tuned.
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