“AI” is fake. Machine learning is real. This matters.

I dislike buzzwords. For me, AI is one of the top contenders as an example of that -- a marketing term that isn’t just inaccurate, but actually unreal (or as Eric Siegel puts it, a big fat lie. I strongly suggest you watch that video).

Machine learning is real and has been for a long time. However, AI (defined as Artificial Intelligence) gets all the headlines.

Why does this matter so much to me? More importantly, why should it matter to you?

Let me put it this way: I want to talk about real things. My work involves aligning technology with business. And many companies that think of themselves as leading-edge are putting the term, AI, right into their website, their business plans, etc. 

When CEOs, their teams or their customers are pushing out a buzzword, it just makes things more complicated.

If a business leader believes that AI is not only real, but that their company is actually building it -- they may misunderstand their own capabilities. “We have machines that can do X, so our business can attempt to achieve Y in the second quarter” -- falls apart if X is not real. 

Customers can also be confused. Let’s say there’s a company selling AI-powered mortgage products or AI-powered investments (There are. I won’t name them, here.) What does “AI-powered” even mean in this case? It means something. But it definitely does not mean a generalized intelligence that can pick the best mortgage for you or the best investment. It’s not basically a really, really smart human that can calculate a million variables at once. It’s not even close. Customers may not get that.

Then, you have marketers --- the worst victims or perpetrators - your choice. By talking about “AI” this-or-that, they are talking about something which is not even properly defined. Alternatively, they may simply saying incorrect things.

Machine learning is real. It’s been real for many years. We’re just discovering the potential of how good it can get. The faster we can stop talking about the AI vaporware and get back into the real world, the more time we can spend on conversations that actually matter.