Keeping up with AI's advances -- and limitations
The advisor reaction to AI brings to mind Alvin Toffler's 1970 book "Future Shock."
The point of Toffler's seminal work was that we were experiencing the downside of rapid technological advances of a type and quantity that was overwhelming to most of us. We are, he claimed, suffering as a society from stress and disorientation specifically caused by too much change in too short a time. Our brains cannot keep up with it. The stress is often related to our jobs: Will computers replace us?
Our society, Toffler argued, is experiencing information overload that will cause instability in our social structures.
What, I wonder, would Toffler say about AI?
In sharing my thoughts with you about AI and its likely impact on our industry, it might be interesting to begin with robotics. That is one of the sexier branches of the AI revolution and, perhaps, the easiest to understand. Let's try to put robotics in perspective:
The hotel sector is where we have seen the largest industry adaptation of customer-facing robots. Over the past decade we've seen a robot named Botlr at the Aloft Property in Cupertino, Calif., that delivers amenities to guestrooms. Making deliveries such as room service has progressed far more than we might imagine. It is now a worldwide phenomenon.
The world's first robot-staffed hotel chain, Henn na, opened in Tokyo. At check-in, robotic receptionists, luggage handlers and service bots greeted guests. Humans were rarely involved. At the Hilton in McLean, Va., a robot named Connie was powered by IBM's AI. She/it provided guests with local dining, sightseeing and specific hotel service information.
You might argue that these are just distractions. Hotel and airport robots can do some amusing and even admirable things.
But they are also examples of the adaptation from simple beginnings of robots performing human tasks based on a strict command/request code to something more nuanced.
Robotics has faced several hurdles, a primary example was the inability to teach a machine how to tie the shoelaces on a pair of men's shoes. They just couldn't do it. They can't account for varying lengths, degrees of tightness, etc. But in May it was reported that Google DeepMind had taught a robot how to tie shoelaces. An often-referenced hurdle has now been overcome.
And now, consider the speed at which AI is adapting to fill the needs of counseling/advice and quick answers to guest questions.
Last August, the Google DeepMind Lab developed a robot that could beat 55% of intermediate pingpong players it faced. It has made some progress since. The robot was trained by simply watching high-level games on video and playing actual opponents.
There is so much to know about robotics and AI and their impact on our industry. But I think we first have to accept the fact that AI is not anything like magic. You are not creating a human. This is all about math.
At its heart, what we call AI is a machine constructed of algorithms that can quickly, almost instantaneously, process information, analyze patterns and generate answers to queries based on its skill at finding the right answer across the field of millions of data points it can access.
But the lesson is that we should never get too confident. Let's not get too confident about the limitations of AI.
Some of our most successful travel corporations have learned that AI tools can now do two things rather successfully: They can solve problems with specific solutions and present information in what we might call a "meaningful conversation."
Aren't we all seeking staff who can do that?
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