The Morning Rant

I am agnostic on the topic of Artificial Intelligence (AI). As Sefton and I discussed on our recent podcast, AI can be useful, but it certainly isn't ready for prime time, and it can also be overbearing and immensely irritating.

That's because the hysteria in corporate America about inserting AI into absolutely everything has become ridiculous. Instead of rolling it out into their businesses as needs and opportunities arise, many companies are shoehorning it into every part of their operations, including most annoyingly, customer service. Sending an email to a company with a question or issue about a product or service shouldn't become an exercise in futility as one wades thorough the often nonsensical responses of an AI system. AI phone systems are particularly annoying, especially since its ability to provide meaningful assistance is in its infancy. Does one really have to wade through three minutes of perky AI voices just to speak to a human, or even worse, leave a message because "Call volume is higher than average?"

I am not a luddite...AI absolutely has its uses, and is becoming a powerful tool, in particular in technical fields where the prompts are tailored, and the databases are specified. And it can be a superb web search engine...sifting through the millions of pages of nonsense to get useful information.

But it has become so pervasive that I find myself reflexively rejecting its presence...disabling it whenever I can, or simply moving on to other, more human-friendly companies and websites that don't shove AI in my face.

DuckDuckGo Installs Surge 30% as Consumers Reject Google 'Force-Feeding' AI with Search Engine

DuckDuckGo, which positions itself as a privacy-focused alternative to Google, has experienced a significant increase in user adoption following the search giant’s announcement of major changes to its search platform that heavily incorporate AI.

TechCrunch reports that DuckDuckGo claims that U.S. app installs increased by an average of 18.1 percent week-over-week during the period from May 20 to May 25, compared to the previous week of May 13 to May 18. The growth was sustained for six consecutive days and reached a peak of 30.5 percent on May 25. On iOS devices specifically, the rate of installation was even more dramatic, with week-over-week growth averaging 33 percent and peaking at 69.9 percent.

The surge in interest comes in direct response to Google’s announcement at its annual I/O developer conference that AI would take over its search engine, as previously reported by Breitbart News:

My guess is that AI will find its niche and become an indispensable tool for certain industries and certain people (it already is for many!), but it will be nothing more than an occasionally useful tool for most people.

Will it take over the world? Probably not. The last time I checked, AI couldn't repair an air conditioner or fix the plumbing or frame a house. It can make fun videos though!

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter and X/Twitter]. If you folks who are on X/Twitter would follow us it would be much appreciated!

posted by CBD at 11:00 AM

| Access Comments