Hello,
I would like to discuss with you about Genetic Algorithms (GA) and their role in real-world problems solving. Everyone who has been involved in a project (where the main goal was to optimize something) knows how difficult continuous improvement is.
This short article presents possibilities of GA in a floorplanning use case. Every shop has its own strategy how to route client to increase content of clients' shopping carts. The Authors describe model that manage to shelves layout optimization in a shop.
Questions:
- Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
- What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
- Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
Maybe it can be an extra tool “only” that supports a human?
link: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.06016.pdf
link: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1704.06016.pdf
To be honest, I don't like the end result presented in the article.
ReplyDeleteMy personal experience with the Genetic Algorithms is rather bad as I had a strange lecturer at my university and we were using Genetic Algorithms to simple things, getting overcomplicated solutions.
Regarding your first question, I think the main use case for AI so far is to prepare/control something which is then used to affect our behaviors.
E.g. Facebook news feed. Posts are displayed based on our previous reactions, but all of this is rather for collecting more accurate data to prepare more accurate ads, which then affect our shopping decisions.
When it comes to other use cases I can think of now, like AI-controlled traffic lights, they change our behavior, but they just have to.
Regarding your second question, it can start a long discussion. Giving just a pro tip here, I like shopping with a list of concrete things I want to buy. And in the supermarket I just compare products, looking at their weight, price, quality, my previous experiences, etc.
Last but not least, I think everything can be replaced and automated.
AI can lead to a whole new level of the creativity. Just google for "Deep Dream AI".
Additionaly, I've read once that by some date, AI should be able to write a bestseller. How crazy is that? :D
And here is a nice example of the current usage of AI in marketing: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/3245817/dove-tricks-brits-with-perfect-mum-advert-featuring-a-model-generated-by-computer-based-on-our-own-warped-perceptions/
Hi, thanks for the reply. I do not like result of this paper too - maybe that's why it was not part of any conference :). I believe the problem is more sophisticated and the authors simplified it too much. Products layout on the shelves is much interesting than alleys' layout.
DeleteI agree with you and I have not heard about AI writer - it will be crazy.
Deep Dream AI in Deep Learning is called Neural Style Transfer.
DeleteLink to tutorial : http://pytorch.org/tutorials/advanced/neural_style_tutorial.html#sphx-glr-advanced-neural-style-tutorial-py
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHVaaHESrlY
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ReplyDelete1. Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteI have seen few documentaries in TV about that, but I don’t remember titles.
2. What can we do to protect us from commercial tricks?
I would say that we are in a relatively small group of people who are aware of what shops are trying to achieve with many techniques. But probably 99% of customers does not have any idea of it, and they are not even interested. Personally it is hard to say that I always think about avoiding those tricks and I choose everything consciously, but I would say especially during shopping with family members that I am so much more aware. When they see promotion sign they get crazy and buy everything that is not needed just because they think it is a lower price than usual. But I always try to teach them that we should compare prices per kilogram, not price of items because their’s weight is different. All in all I think that after that they still do the same, because you really must care or at least be interested to make any change in your habits.
3. Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
With current knowledge and techniques I think that it is easy to replace human experts because you can apply already known techniques in algorithms, and very often this is more efficient in terms of time effectiveness and less calculation mistakes. But is AI ready to create better business strategies, advertisements and entertainment without human factor? I don’t think so.
Hello, thanks for your opinion. I have to say that I am aware of these techniques. Nevertheless I am in a group of people, which are not taking into account marketing tricks during their visit in a mall. I go to shop and buy what I need and few useless things too. Online shops use some algorithms that analyse our preferences and presents additional products that may interest us but it is easier to decide - do I really need this thing.
Delete1)
ReplyDeleteFor me, the most visible examples of AI's impact on human behavior are recommendation systems. Such systems, usually based on your similarity to other users, recommend you products you may be interested in. If the algorithm is accurate it may make a huge impact on your buying decisions as you indeed will be interested in other products besides the one you were originally looking for.
2)
Every time, before you go shopping you can prepare a detailed list of all products you want to buy and stick to that list. But some tricks may be good for you. For example, you may decide that you need a given amount of a product X, but then you see that there is a promotion and you can buy a double amount for much less than a doubled price of a single product. If you bought the double amount you were tricked by a shop to buy more to than you needed at the moment, but on the other hand, it can be beneficial for you if you'll need that extra amount in the future.
3)
I think that to some extent experts in mentioned fields can be replaced by AI. For example in an advertisement, probably it would be difficult for AI to generate marketing content for any brand, but I think it would be possible to create such solution for a specific brand. Of course, the algorithm wouldn't be able to generate anything novel and fresh, like a new style of commercials, but still, it could create new content based marketing materials previously prepared by humans. After all, there are many repeating patterns in advertisements.
Hello, as I wrote above - recommended products are great example. I have a list of products that I need when I go to the shop, but I am "open minded" so if I can see interesting product outside the list - I will buy it (in most of cases unfortunately) :)
DeleteI believe you are right in a third point, but AI can achieve better results than human experts in a lot of cases. Please take a look at first opinion, where you can find the sentence: "AI should be able to write a bestseller" :)
I think that professor is big fan of Genetic Algorithms and he told his employees to write something on this topic :D. Yeaah this sentence is nice "Results show that the approach can produce reasonably good layout designs in very short amounts of time. " before you look at the outcome of this algorithm (fig from 7 to 13). I was reading this not so long ago because I was working on quite similar problem (laboratory placement on the floor), but reults shown here did not impress me, so I choose another method. But going back to your questions:
ReplyDelete1.Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
I am thinking should we call it AI or not I would go with machine learning (I am always curious about proper naming when it comes to AI field) I don't know.
I will go with recommendation systems (Adam Slucki explained it very nice)
2. I don't know, maybe we should not do any shoping and stay at home (of course we should exclude internet and TV :D). I was reading or hearing somewhere that in malls even music is important when we are doing shopping.
3. Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
I am doing research in image recognition (especially I am interested in finding tumors on sonograms and classification of them) and myself and my collegues had this discussion (we had this after results of our experiment in above field) about can we replace medical residents with our solution so they don't need to protest any more. But when it comes to medicine I think we all agree that experts knowledge is most important thing and that this kind of solution can be only tool and help in doctors opinion.
But when it comes to lawyers and there knowledge that we should know that AN was much better then people.
https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2017/10/28/ai-beats-human-lawyers-in-casecrunch-prediction-showdown/
Hi Tomasz,
DeleteI heard about music role in a malls too, but I would like to focus mostly at 3rd point of your answer. This is vision of future. Algorithms / AI and so on produce repeatable results. Human errors are something natural and for instance in medicine we should treat artificial intelligence and algorithms as extra tools that increase treatment efficiency.
1. Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteThere are many cases of AI manipulating human behaviours. Many of them are even wanted by the manipulated ones. For example, any modern car navigation system uses AI to point the fastest way from one point to another.
2. What can we do to protect us from commercial trick?
First, we have to define what is a “commercial trick”. Let’s say we stand in front of a shelf in the market filled with pasta. The positioning of each brand is obviously such trick. The colourful packaging also. But how we can choose between plain, wheat and whole grain? Are the buyers choosing the latter health conscious? Or were they just influenced to choose more fashionable and expensive version?
If You meant just the problem of positioning goods, we can easily help ourselves by just making a shopping list. But If You meant anything more… well, I wish good luck to anyone, who attempts to.
3. Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment?
I think for now, in those fields, AI can be just some extra help. As for now, a program cannot be creative, which is the most important part of the problem. Even in genetic algorithms, we’re still in very limited space for possible outcomes. The algorithm you showed won’t invent a new type of facility to buy goods – it can only tell you how to replace shelves. It’s going to be far efficient than a human, but still, it is what it is: a tool.
Katarzyna, in my opinion AI is a powerful technology that makes our life more convenient. A car navigation example shows how can we use it to achieve that goal. Using for instance google maps allows us to limit car traffic impact on our lives. There is nothing for free for sure but I accept that.
DeleteYour opinion about AI as extra utilities is similar to mine. Thanks a lot.
1. The most obvious example that comes to my mind is Facebook and Google recommendation system. Ads and things that we might like or be interested in are being chosen basing on our previous behaviour,"likes", string searches etc.
ReplyDelete2. If we are aware of the fact that we are being constantly manipulated, and we are aware of this fact, then we've already done something about it. We aren't so prone to manipulation like people who are not aware of this fact. I don't care about commercials and stuff that is being promoted by them. I buy things that I like and need at the moment. But of course I allow for certain manipulation when I do groceries, I buy things from promotional leaflet, even though I know that I won't need some of the products in the nearest future.
3. I think that in the field of strategy/advertisement/entertainment AI won't replace human beings, but it can be treated as added value to this field of business
Hi, recommendation systems are most popular. Awareness is something that helps us to resist commercials. Unfortunately I am sometimes to weak and awareness is not enough :). Good commercial and manipulation can defeat my awareness.
DeleteHi, thanks for this interesting article.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid I am not very familiar with the concept.
Regarding the first question I think about Facebook campaigns and the recent election in the United States. Any other platforms which provide develop have their own AI recommendation models.
What can we do to protect us from commercial trick?
If we consider this commercial trick in terms of recommendation systems or location of shelfs in a market protection can be seen as an awareness of the existence of such state. It requires more effort from a customer to find the best, for example, price of a product in a shop because it may be not the price offered in a promotion.
I think that AI can complementary to the actions undertaken by humans.
Tanks for your opinion. You are right Facebook is one of the biggest players in a market. It is powerful platform and allows to manipulate human behaviours. As I wrote before awareness is important but sometimes it is not enough.
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ReplyDelete
ReplyDelete1 Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
I think that very interesting solution is price fit according current supply and demand (like in Uber). Probably it is not exactly AI but rather siple optimalisation algorithm. AI can be used in sale of plane ticets. If airline has profiles of customers historical behaviors neural network may be good solution.
2 What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
I think best solution is shoping online. You should know what you would like to buy. And when you buy something valuable - compare prices.
3 Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
Partialy it has been done. When business reality can be reasonably modeled you may use AI. In advertisement I'm sure Google saved a lot of money on hiring experts. I 've heard that there is software for preparation of films/books scenarios. But it creates jobs for AI experts :)
Hello, You mentioned very interesting use case at first point. Probably Google saves a lot of money using AI, but the most important is that they are earning a lot of money using sophisticated algorithms and AI solutions.
DeleteDo you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteThis is something new for me, so I'm afraid not.
What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
I think that it will be hard. Smart algorithms can trick us quite easily. Most of us are aware that commercials can manipulate us and ignore them. In my honest opinion, I'm trying to avoid every advertisement and commercial I can. They are far from what I want to see.
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
I don't think so, they can try, however most of AI's are constantly failing vs humans. I know that some of them can pass Touring tests, but they are far from being really smart and productive.
Thanks for the answer. How can you avoid commercials? You do not have TV and Internet? I am wondering how to achieve that and if you can - please share with me - even on priv :)
Delete1. AI algorithms, among other things, allow to find twins in relation to selected features. For example, if the 100 people who have used the service 40 have common characteristics, it means that when we find other people with these features, the probability of using them will be higher.
ReplyDelete2. We can protect ourselves from commercial activity by disabling automatic add-ons by blocking suspicious websites by setting SSL certificate checking by blocking additional cookies. When installing new free software, we can exclude options that allow us to add additional toolbars, plugins, and extensions to our system. We may avoid using email services, social networking sites and e-commerce sites that do not offer encrypted connections, etc.
3. I hope they can only support them. As AI was developed to replace them effectively, I think it would have a destructive impact on the functioning of societies, especially in the field of marketing.
1. I am sure the technology like social media can be powerful in changing human beliefs and behavior. AI influences how we think or decide.
ReplyDeleteFor example, GoldenLine or LinkedIn send me jobs offers basing on the offers I reviewed lately. These new ones are not often even similar to the previous ones, but the system somehow knows how to direct my attention. This is a positive example, but there is a lot of less nice cases, when – especially advertisements – can make me nervous very fast, because they are appearing basing on old data, in spite I don’t need them.
2. This is only one way to protect ourselves from commercial tricks - we have to be conscious, read, listen and observe carefully all the signals directed to us. This become more and more difficult, because marketing becomes more and more clever and uses more and more intelligent methods to catch us. But as naïve traditionalist I believe a human is more clever and intelligent than a computer or system, even if it learns faster and faster :-)
3. As I mentioned above, I keep on preferring and appreciating humans first of all. I don’t believe AI could replace experts responsible for “talent” fields in business like strategy, advertisement or entertainment. Simply human creativity states for me as possibly highest and unexpectedly valuable “that’s it” making difference in everyday activity. Not only in business, but in life generally. Nothing can replace alive human. Definitely, AI can only be an “extra tool”. And this is its proper place :-)
1. Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteYes, I remember few software manufacturers that mention in their license terms that they use AI. For example Facebook or Skype use AI to offer us new contacts or to present us selected ads. However besides social media I do no know any other case.
2. What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
I’m not sure if we should try to protect us from commercial trics. Of course people who are aware of such trics can try to avoid them. Otherwise what we can do? We can surrender and live on…
3. Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
In my point of view it’s possible only in some areas but not in general. Although I’m not good at these issues I think that human is irreplaceable, especially in terms of important choices and ethics. I agree that talent is also needed but it can be learned by AI.
Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteSure, for example: under the hood of Google maps there are some machine learning algorithms that can make adjustments to our trip, so it could be faster. Google Now has it's own engine that learns our daily behaviours and push us updates with the content that we would probably like to read (based on our history) and propose us optimal road to our work. Facebook and LinkedIn are able to recommend us people, who we would likely know and therefore have an impact in our social status in network. According to fintech, risk of loan or insurance is also based on ML algorithms and results of calculations has indirect influence of that if we can afford something or not.
What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
Cut off from new media totally. Commercials are calculated to being tricky and have an influence to our behaviours. However I would ask: do we really want to reduce commercial that offers us tailored solutions based on our needs?
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
Why not both?:) I see a large field to enhance talents with AI rather than replace them. For example, clinical decision support system (CDSS) is still getting progress in diagnosis therefore is getting more thrusted than few years ago, sometimes getting better results than real diagnostics. I could see the same way development in programming task. How great would that be if AI could write good, well documented and tested code instead of programmer, who could became an inventor rather than craftsman again? :)
Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteI think best examples of AI applince for human behaviours manipulations are:
a) recommendation systems based on clustering and similarity
b) recommendation systems based on sentiment analysis
c) GAN's that are applied for agent based modeling problems
What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
every user should consider data privacy and security. If we will hand less data for data procesors, insight that they will be havign will be less suficient
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment?
IF ot comes for strategy setup I do not think AI will replace humans soon. AI is as good as training data and if for instant strategy decision it could be based on many noised and correlated data it will we hard to achieve some usable output for AI solution
Do you know any other case, where AI helps to manipulate human behaviours?
ReplyDeleteNothing comes to my mind at this moment. I don't have much in common with AI or Genetic Algorithms, so it is not that obvious to me.
What can we do to protect us from commercial trics?
As everybody who uses internet is sourrounded by commercials it is difficult to protect from them. I think, the resonable approach is to realize what commercials are and why are they created. Before we buy or use something, it is important to think if we really need it. I always try to do this, but of course it does not work all the time ;)
Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) replace human experts responsible for business strategy / advertisement / entertainment? (In my opinion this areas require special let's say talents)
I think, that AI is far from replacing humans (maybe can replace experts in very narrow areas), but it can be a valuable help, by reducing time and simplifying experts' work.