Kevin Kelly's 2016 AI Predictions, 10 Years Later

(taylor.town)

48 points | by surprisetalk 3 hours ago

4 comments

  • stephen_cagle 1 hour ago
    By my own, completely arbitrary split of this into 16 predictions, I would say that this hits on maybe 8 of 16 if we are being a bit generous. Which is good, but certainly not "Inevitable" (the title of the book).

    With that said, maybe he meant inevitable as N approaches infinity... So there's still time!

    Aside: I think the biggest interesting prediction he had was that AI would obey a user driven network effect. It seems like a very clean prediction, and yet it has failed to materialize? I wonder if this has more to do with just how scrape-able the whole internet was or with distilation or what? There is certainly an advantage to having good user data, but it seems like it is largely something that can be worked around (by hook or crook)?

  • cousinbryce 1 hour ago
    Google’s main product was and continues to be ads
  • AndrewKemendo 1 hour ago
    If you really want your mind blown look at how accurate Ray Kurzweil was from his 1999 book Age of Spiritual Machines

    The most striking thing is that almost all of his missed predictions were missed not because the technology was not available, but because society rejected or didn’t adopt that technology

    • _doctor_love 1 hour ago
      > but because society rejected or didn’t adopt that technology

      I would argue that society would likely have been glad to adopt, but the profit-seeking motive got in the way (again).

      • AndrewKemendo 56 minutes ago
        Actually I think it’s the inverse

        I was focused on augmented reality largely in part because it was such a big enabler of all other AI technologies

        However people have almost uniformly rejected AR glasses my entire career for social reasons and that is only increasing

        To the point where in 2016 I was debating with Jessica Alba and she was firm that they won’t take off cause most people don’t want to wear glasses

        • NDlurker 22 minutes ago
          I don't like wearing glasses. I should wear my glasses more often, but I don't. But that isn't going to stop me from buying the Even Reality G2
  • brabel 23 minutes ago
    [dead]