I agree but I still question whether modern ML is useful at all.
I mean OK, obviously it works quite well for China in order for their social credit score system to work (facial recognition almost everywhere you go) -- which is damned impressive, I'll give it that. But does it work in the benefit of the people at large?
I've read a study a loooooong time ago, I think the late 90s, that stated that the amount of time people spend in the kitchen has not moved down at all. For all the praised innovation of technology, people still have to cut salads by hand -- or if they use the so-called kitchen robots that make the job quicker, you still aren't saving time because then cleaning the machine takes more than it took before (you had to just rinse the cutting board and the knife). If memory serves, Michael Crichton cited this study in the book "Jurassic Park" even...
So I keep asking: where's the actually useful stuff? Are we going to be classifying kittens (or making a NN distinguish between those small rat-like dog faces from cookies) until civilization collapses?
Where's the useful AI? When will I, a programmer that hates voice assistants (because I know how useless they are) and the idea of constant surveillance in my home, reap any tangible benefits from AI?
But I suspect you'll cite various small improvements that are only known in small circles and will say "they'll be ready when they're ready" which, even though not wrong at all, will not be helpful.
Dishwasher saves a lot of time. Not many machines in my kitchen can be classified as "robot"
* oven - not intend to save time (except the fan option), easy-medium to clean
* instant pot - saves time, easy to clean
* rice-cooker - saves time, easy to clean
* electric kettle - save time, easy to clean
If you ever lived in condition without those, you wouldn't praise "cutting board and the knife". I don't need quotes from books to know it.
I agree on the kitchen appliances front and I am just about to buy a slow cooker and a steamer these days and I am sure it's going to improve things a lot.
But the so-called kitchen robots? They are incredibly useful but they make a mess of themselves that you have to clean thoroughly afterwards. They save effort but they don't save time. That was my overall point. And I am not praising the cutting board and the knife per se, I am saying that if you are in the mood to use them for 10-15 minutes then they are sometimes the better options.
But in general this wasn't the topic, I was merely saying that time is not being saved very much these days, at least not the maximum extent that's IMO possible with today's technology. But I recognize that not everyone agrees.
I suspect that might be down to kitchen social dynamics (and/or carefully defined its terms to avoid counting pre-prepared food which is the real timesaver), because e.g. laundry has famously become something that consumes massively less time due to mechanisation.
Being able to search through your photo library by person is a real improvement that ordinary people notice and use. (Also I think most technical people gave up on voice recognition back when it was overhyped and poor, and have thus missed out on what it can do when it's actually decent).
Oh yes, I completely agree with the laundry part. That indeed was the biggest time saver in my household as well.
> Being able to search through your photo library by person is a real improvement that ordinary people notice and use.
Agreed and I want that as well but I will not use Google Photos. And Apple's Photos it waaaaaaaaay too slow into adopting this -- at least it doesn't allow you to specifically say "please can my library now", which would be of tremendous help. So I am left with searching open-source software for this which I haven't yet found -- but I didn't look too hard because I have a ton of other things to do.
I mean OK, obviously it works quite well for China in order for their social credit score system to work (facial recognition almost everywhere you go) -- which is damned impressive, I'll give it that. But does it work in the benefit of the people at large?
I've read a study a loooooong time ago, I think the late 90s, that stated that the amount of time people spend in the kitchen has not moved down at all. For all the praised innovation of technology, people still have to cut salads by hand -- or if they use the so-called kitchen robots that make the job quicker, you still aren't saving time because then cleaning the machine takes more than it took before (you had to just rinse the cutting board and the knife). If memory serves, Michael Crichton cited this study in the book "Jurassic Park" even...
So I keep asking: where's the actually useful stuff? Are we going to be classifying kittens (or making a NN distinguish between those small rat-like dog faces from cookies) until civilization collapses?
Where's the useful AI? When will I, a programmer that hates voice assistants (because I know how useless they are) and the idea of constant surveillance in my home, reap any tangible benefits from AI?
But I suspect you'll cite various small improvements that are only known in small circles and will say "they'll be ready when they're ready" which, even though not wrong at all, will not be helpful.