Question:

How do you evaluate the quality and originality of AI products/software/websites in the market?

Some AI products/software/websites claim to offer innovative and cutting-edge solutions, but are they really using advanced AI techniques or just repackaging existing software (sometimes free) and charging a premium fee? For example, ChatGPT seems to have some potential, but it also requires a lot of skill and creativity to generate good prompts, and the paid membership is quite expensive. Are there other examples of AI products/software/websites that are not really impressive or novel, but just exploiting the hype around AI?

Answer:

AI is everywhere these days. From voice assistants to chatbots, from self-driving cars to facial recognition, AI seems to be the magic word that promises to solve all our problems and make our lives easier. But how can we tell if a product/software/website is really using AI, or just pretending to do so?

AI, or artificial intelligence, is a broad term that covers a range of technologies that enable machines to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as reasoning, learning, decision making, and natural language processing. However, not all AI is created equal. There are different levels of AI, from narrow AI that can only do one specific thing, to general AI that can do anything a human can do, to super AI that can surpass human capabilities. Most of the AI we encounter today is narrow AI, which is good at one or a few tasks, but not very flexible or adaptable.

One way to evaluate the quality and originality of AI products/software/websites is to look at the input, the output, and the process of the AI system. The input is the data or information that the AI system receives, the output is the result or action that the AI system produces, and the process is the algorithm or model that the AI system uses to transform the input into the output.

The input, output, and process of an AI system can vary in complexity, novelty, and usefulness. A high-quality and original AI system would have a complex, novel, and useful input, output, and process. A low-quality and unoriginal AI system would have a simple, common, and useless input, output, and process.

For example, let’s compare two chatbot products: ChatGPT and ChatBot. ChatGPT is a chatbot that uses a large-scale neural network model called GPT-4 to generate natural language responses based on the user’s input. ChatBot is a chatbot that uses a simple rule-based system to match the user’s input with predefined responses.

The input of ChatGPT is any text that the user types, which can be a question, a statement, a command, or a conversation starter. The input of ChatBot is a limited set of keywords or phrases that the user can choose from a menu or a list.

The output of ChatGPT is a text response that is generated by the neural network model, which can be coherent, relevant, informative, creative, or humorous, depending on the input and the prompt. The output of ChatBot is a text response that is selected from a database of predefined responses, which can be generic, repetitive, irrelevant, or boring, depending on the input and the rule.

The process of ChatGPT is a complex and novel algorithm that uses deep learning and natural language processing techniques to learn from a large corpus of text data and generate new text based on the input and the prompt. The process of ChatBot is a simple and common algorithm that uses if-else statements and pattern matching techniques to match the input with the predefined responses.

Based on this comparison, we can see that ChatGPT is a high-quality and original AI product, while ChatBot is a low-quality and unoriginal AI product. ChatGPT has a complex, novel, and useful input, output, and process, while ChatBot has a simple, common, and useless input, output, and process.

Of course, this is not the only way to evaluate AI products/software/websites. There are other factors to consider, such as the accuracy, reliability, scalability, security, ethics, and cost of the AI system. However, by looking at the input, output, and process of the AI system, we can get a general idea of how advanced and innovative the AI system is, and how much value it can provide to the users.

Therefore, the next time you encounter an AI product/software/website, don’t be fooled by the hype and the buzzwords. Ask yourself: what is the input, output, and process of the AI system? How complex, novel, and useful are they? Is this a real AI or a fake AI? You might be surprised by the answer.