AI at Alibaba: What We Know (And Don't)
A lot of what our society considers artificial intelligence is actually not, according to author Beth Daley of the Conversation. Artificial intelligence, or AI, must mimic human intelligence in ways surpassing simple automation. Therefore, technological inventions that utilize statistics, data reporting, and other common methods of analyzing user activity (Daley, 2022) are not necessarily AI. Author David Lyle of Pacific Data Integrators used an example to highlight AI being incorrectly attributed by looking at a self-service soda machine that reported to researchers which soda combinations were highly popular. But this isn't artificial intelligence — it's just simple data reporting. One modern company regularly utilizing AI in its business practices is Alibaba, an e-commerce platform headquartered in China. Aside from making large investments in AI research and software ( Faggella, 2022 ), Alibaba is outwardly using artificial intelligence solutions to drive sales. One examp...