Automated usefullness

It actually surprises me when people describe AI as having IQ. For example,  the “tests” which found that Bing AI (GPT4) has an IQ of 114 – haha!! Not sure whether that’s just marketing, or a joke, or what, but I think it’s the wrong frame. Generative has an AI has an IQ of ‘null’ or ‘not applicable’, if anything. Same for EQ. A child with an IQ of 50 (relative to an adult) can’t defeat Google’s 70 million dollar chess AI, AlphaZero, but they can do something much more intelligent: decide whether or not the game is to be played in the first place. A better frame for AI-based automation is maybe UQ, usefulness quotient. The first “UQ technology” I experienced was the automatic door opener at the Safeway grocery store. It had zero IQ but it was massively useful millions of times a day. Over time, though, it receded into the background of shopper consciousness, taken for granted. This is nice because if users notice something too much, it actually becomes a little bit less useful. I want the same thing for software built using AI, automatic usefulness that users hardly notice after a few experiences with it.

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Automated usefullness

July 24, 2023

It actually surprises me when people describe AI as having IQ. For example,  the “tests” which found that Bing AI (GPT4) has an IQ of 114 – haha!!

Not sure whether that’s just marketing, or a joke, or what, but I think it’s the wrong frame. Generative has an AI has an IQ of ‘null’ or ‘not applicable’, if anything. Same for EQ.

A child with an IQ of 50 (relative to an adult) can’t defeat Google’s 70 million dollar chess AI, AlphaZero, but they can do something much more intelligent: decide whether or not the game is to be played in the first place.

A better frame for AI-based automation is maybe UQ, usefulness quotient.

The first “UQ technology” I experienced was the automatic door opener at the Safeway grocery store. It had zero IQ but it was massively useful millions of times a day.

Over time, though, it receded into the background of shopper consciousness, taken for granted. This is nice because if users notice something too much, it actually becomes a little bit less useful.

I want the same thing for software built using AI, automatic usefulness that users hardly notice after a few experiences with it.

(This was originally published on Art of Message – subscribe here)