0'I've Seen the Future of Consumer AI, and it Doesn't Have One' (theregister.co.uk)	null/SLASHDOT/0102639856		70
i  Thursday September 06, 2018 @11:30PM (msmash)
i  from the there-is-no-spoon dept.
i
i    Andrew  Orlowski  of  The  Register  recounts  all  the gadgets
i    [1]supercharged  with  AI  that he came across at IFA tradeshow
i    last  week  -- and wonders what value AI brought to the table .
i    He writes:
i    
i    >  I  didn't  see a blockchain toothbrush at IFA in Berlin last
i    week,  but I'm sure there was one lurking about somewhere. With
i    30  vast  halls  to cover, I didn't look too hard for it. But I
i    did  see many things almost as tragic that no one could miss --
i    AI   being  squeezed  into  almost  every  conceivable  bit  of
i    consumer  electronics.  But none were convincing. If ever there
i    was  a  solution  looking  for  a problem, it's ramming AI into
i    gadgets  to  show  of a company's machine learning prowess. For
i    the  consumer  it  adds unreliability, cost and complexity, and
i    the annoyance of being prompted.
i    
i    >
i    
i    >  [...]  Back  to LG, which takes 2018's prize for sticking AI
i    into  a  superfluous  gadget. The centrepiece of its AI efforts
i    this  year  is  a robot, ClOi. Put Google Assistant or Alexa on
i    wheels,  and  you  have  ClOi.  I  asked  the booth person what
i    exactly  ClOi  could  do to be told "it can take notes for your
i    shopping   list."   Why  wasn't  this  miracle  of  the  Fourth
i    Industrial  Revolution let loose on the LG floor? I wondered --
i    a  question  answered by this account of ClOi's debut at CES in
i    January.  Clearly  things  haven't  improved much -- this robot
i    buddy was kept indoors.
i    
i    
i    
i    [1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/09/05/consumer_ai_ifa_2-
i    018_roundup/
i