I don't want to muddy the waters in the AI thread, so, this being a chat room, I decided to start a new one.

Back in the mid-eighties, in the days of DOS before Windows had really taken over, I was working on a program to help performers like magicians, singers, bands, comedians, and others to manage their businesses. I set it up the same way I managed things when I was performing: start with a list of prospects, send proposals, book the shows, send follow-up letters and bills, and so forth, including preparing income and expense breakdowns for tax purposes. It would even keep track of sets (useful for musicians) and other details, and give me a do-list periodically to remind me of what I had to do. I wanted it to function like a business manager, but the user could select the features they wanted or didn't want.

It wasn't based on AI: it was just a relational database with several files and a BUNCH of routines and sub-routines basically working off of if-then-else and do-while statements. About the time I got sidetracked and stopped working on it, I was planning to have it also create reports that would show things like repeat customers, demographics, what type of material went over well, pricing trends, and so forth. It was written in Clipper (an old database programming language), and the deeper I got into it, the more cool things I discovered I could do with it, with a little imagination on my part.

I'm writing this only because I can see something like this being marketed today as an AI-based program. But it wasn't: all the instructions were coded, and even the parts where the program would seemingly do something on its own (like find patterns) were hard-coded. Sometimes I wish I'd continued working on it...

Yea the most confusing part I think in the very near future George is going to be defining AI and how it is different from what you describe.

Oh yeah... absolutely.

George, I know nothing about coding and all that and this may be a crazy thought, but doesn’t artificial intelligence code itself? And if that’s the case, wow.

I'm not nearly smart enough to understand how AI works but having been in business most all of my life, I can spot a good business tool when I see it. And AI seems to be the next must have business tool. It looks like an all-purpose toolbox to me.

Tom

I don't know if it codes itself, Tom. What I know about AI can be written on the head of a pin with a Sharpie.

Luckily, Tom, I know a lot about coding.

You are correct that one of the promises of AI was that it would be self-learning. The failure of most AI to fulfill that promise is one of the reasons I consider current AI more like Google than HAL.

There are definitely AI that are self-learning and even self-coding, but those aren't the ones most of us are using.

And George, you are completely right that many so-called AI tools are mostly algorithmic, and that rules-based software can do a lot of the same things as AI (and often more reliably). Without getting too academic or technical, the word that comes to mind when describing how AI differs is "emergent." It's about throwing a lot of data into a big pot and then mathematically imposing order. It's not random, but it's not predictable.

So the question for me is how much you can depend on the model, and how much code do you have to wrap around the model to make it do "the right thing."

This is probably a bad way to describe it, but it's a bit like trying to set up a stacked deck using a table wash.

Yes, It is a lot like Google.

In fact, Gemini, owned by Google, is considered by some as being one of the most advanced AI programs available right now. And anybody that can use Google can use the free version of it. You don’t need to know all the tech stuff to get results.

Yes, there will always be a trust part to consider, and you need to make the final approval, but no you don't need to be a tech wiz to use it. But hey, that's a good thing for people like me. I don't understand how a plane flys but I still trust it enough to get on.


I like the free Gemini.

Tom