Here’s what you’ll find in this issue:

• The AI We Already Know

• Spotting Real AI

• The AI Marketing Trap 

Welcome to issue #3 of Techtopia FYI!

It may seem that AI was first introduced with ChatGPT, when in fact we’ve had AI for quite some time now. Sure, the automated chat bot made some headlines when it was first launched that put the AI world on the map, but we’ve been interacting with AI for many years.

The AI We Already Know

Before ChatGPT became the face of AI, we were already using artificial intelligence daily without even realizing it. Remember how Gmail got better at catching spam over the years? That's machine learning at work - it's been filtering our emails since 2004!

Netflix has been using AI to suggest what to watch next since the late 2000s (remember when they offered a $1 million prize to anyone who could improve their recommendation system?).

Even your old friend Google Search has been using AI since 2015 with something called RankBrain to figure out what you're actually looking for, even when you make typos or use slang.

Look, I’ m not entirely out to get AI and boycott it because AI came to help us out in some way or the other. In fact, I’ll probably run the draft of this article through ChatGPT to help me look for error, fix some context or punctuation (Microsoft Word does pretty much that too).

My issue is that I’ve noticed that everything people are shipping is AI related. I feel like it’s going to be saturated very quickly. You guys remember the Monkey pictures all over X / Twitter, or whatever you want to call it?

Most of these products that are being launched are getting bought by bigger companies that would probably kill the idea because it doesn’t correlate with their vision.

Spotting Real AI

So how do you spot the real AI from the marketing fluff?

Here's a quick reality check: genuine AI applications usually improve over time as they learn from data (like how your spam filter gets smarter), handle complex tasks that would be impossible with simple if-then rules (like understanding natural language), and don't make AI their main selling point - it's just a tool to solve a real problem better.

Now, don’t get me wrong, probably some of these products are amazing. For example, Midjourney is a webapp built to help you come up with very creative image ideas.

You know those ideas that pop in your head like: “Imagine – actual prompt – ‘A light beige long haired cat takes a selfie while traveling in Paris. She was wearing warm winter clothes and sunglasses, standing against the backdrop of the streets of Paris’.”
Output:

Or this one: “A DSLR-style photo of a philosopher sitting on a crowded train, gazing out the window, feeling an overwhelming sense of isolation. Commuters stand and sit around him, but they are blurred in the background, emphasizing his loneliness. Soft light from the window highlights his contemplative expression. The overall color tone is cool, creating a slightly cold, detached atmosphere”

Output:

Amazing, right?

But don’t get fooled by everything that has AI written on the title, or documentation. Not everything we are being fed as AI is actually AI.

Let’s take this example:

•  ‘AI-powered' water bottles! Awesome, right?! Catchy, innovative! (not really)

• Revolution Cooking R180 Smart Toaster advertises "smart" algorithms (can’t wait to get a bagel from that!)

• Mailchimp's "Subject Line Helper" is marketed as AI-powered: you see, to me this is simply an autocorrect feature that has been around for some time already. It’s just being rebranded as AI powered.

The AI Marketing Trap

These products, often priced at premium points ($60-$500), claim to use artificial intelligence to track and optimize your life.

However, when you look under the hood, most use the same technology found in a basic fitness tracker: accelerometers to detect movement and simple sensors to measure water levels, more advanced timers (not sure how advanced can a timer get than going from 1 minute to 0 in order to toast your bagel lol.)

The 'AI' component in these proclaimed innovative pieces of tech is often just a basic calculation using your input, local weather, activity level, etc., - something that could be done with a simple spreadsheet.

Let's talk about the "AI tax" - that premium price tag slapped onto basic products just because they've added the letters "AI" to the name. That "AI-powered" water bottle?

It's selling for $80 when a regular smart bottle with the same sensors costs $25. The "AI" toaster? $350, compared to a high-end programmable toaster at $60.

You're basically paying extra for a marketing term, not extra functionality. It's like paying premium prices for "organic" water - same H2O, fancier label.

The Bottom Line

Could I be wrong on any of these? Sure! But my point is that we need to make informed decisions when diving or discussing these topics as this can create unclear understanding of what Artificial Intelligence actually is.

I love what AI is bringing to the table. It has helped me so much in the process of learning (I wish ChatGPT was available when I was in college!)

There are a lot more topics I left out of this article as I didn’t want to make this a dissertation for a PH.D.

So, If you’re interested in more of this, please feel free to reply to this email, or make sure to give feedback down below so that I know you liked this.

Thanks for reading issue #3 of Techtopia FYI!

Best,

Adrian!