Artificial Intelligence | Bacon’s Rebellion

Type “UVA Board Visitors members” into the Bing search engine, and the information highlight appears atop the page. Just one problem. The UVA Board doesn’t have seven members, it has 17 members. For a source the text points to an article in UVA Today discussing board appointments by Governor Bob McDonnell in 2010.

Admittedly, the info-box right below the one I show here did get the number right. But let this serve as a warning to one and all that AI has a long way to go. At the current exponential rate of improvement, we may be only a year or two away from a generation capable of generating reliably accurate results. For now, buyer beware. Search engines may be free, but you get what you pay for.

— JAB