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Comment by kyleschiller | Hacker News Reader

Facebook's M has had limited success, but on the other hand, News Feed, the core of Facebook's business, is build entirely around AI. And Google, of course, has had plenty of success with AI outside of Allo.

I wouldn't say "nobody cares or wants" AI, just that companies are still trying to figure out where it's best used.

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You're right...kinda. AI is used in many places. Where it's advertised as a feature? Failure. Where it's used in the backend? People don't seem to have much of a choice. I stand by my statement.

Back in 90s, some Japanese manufacturers (e.g. Panasonic) tried to sell AI-based home appliances such as rice cookers or washing machines. The buzzword then was "Fuzzy Logic" instead of NN. Don't know how successful they were, but it seemed like a classic case of selling features instead of stories. Ordinary people don't buy stuff because of its features.

I think fuzzy logic controllers are very common in appliances. Samsung even has a neuro fuzzy logic washing machine that uses optical sensors to see how clean the water is. I think consumers need a fancy sounding technology on their appliances even if they don't know what it means exactly.

I don't know if they still do, but I know the Japanese used Fuzzy Logic for a while to schedule their trains.

The distinction between fuzzy logic and the Bayesian interpretation of probability has always been unclear to me.

Fuzzy logic are very successful in auto focusing cameras.

Reminds me of the (imo, erroneous) dichotomy between "strong" and "weak" AI back in the day. Strong AI is what captures the imagination of the crowds, but weak AI is what actually brings the money despite not being as sexy. Of course many things that we take for granted now would have been considered strong AI 40 years ago; the definition is constantly shifting.

I forget where I heard it, but someone once pointed out that AI, before the recent DL boom, refers to things that we don't know how to do. As soon as we know how to solve a problem, it gets a much more apt name.

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