Nouns & Wordplay — the new business model of AI companies

Javed Akhtar, one of India’s most famous writers, once expressed the idea that the breadth of one’s vocabulary directly influences the clarity and depth of their thoughts and communication. He stated: “Words are not thoughts, just like bricks are not homes. But houses are made with bricks. If you have less bricks, you will make a small house. The more words you have, the clearer your thoughts, and the more clearly you can convey them."

I think this very idea is at play in the world of technology and the bubbles it has created.

For example, in the phrase 'Social Media', social is an adjective, and not noun. Media = information source. Thus, Social Media = information source where the source of creation is society itself (or social tools).

But it’s presented with taglines with the themes of “our goal is to connect people” purely in an attempt to make 'social' part of the word feel like it’s a noun. Take a moment and ask yourself, "is social media in any way fulfilling 'social' part of the agenda?" If you think making people interact with on each other's posts is 'being social', then you can also declare any interactivity in the real world the same.

Wordplay helps a lot in the world of economics. Sometimes as the name of the technology, and sometimes as the names of companies (even when the company creates nothing great).

Learning from a lizard skin in an Amazon forest about its grip, and then making a hand glove for rock climbing that is inspired by that design, does not make the glove itself a 'lizard'. One never goes around claiming “we are selling lizards”. It’s instead said that “we are selling gloves whose design was inspired by lizards with good grips”.

In Machine Learning, the concept of 'neurons' was inspired by (simile or metaphor) the human nervous system. But that does not make the function or formula itself 'a neuron'!

The world has been capitalising on wordplay for a while now. That’s how bubbles are created.

In Artificial Intelligence, is 'artificial' the noun? Is 'intelligence' the adjective? It’s unclear which is which. And this ambiguity is what is running the investments.

AI domain thrives on the lack of vocabulary. Nobody wants to define what exactly is happening under the hood. Nobody cares to glorify or make it more known that it’s all just mathematics. For some reason, there’s a tendency to keep the ambiguity going. And THIS is the dangerous part.

Any technology is as good as its awareness amongst people. And as bad as the lack of it.

I will be adding more to this article as I brainstorm further. In the mean time, I'd love to know your take on the current hype of AI. Let me know using the Contact Me page.