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I don't see it as a threat because it assumes that the data available already is good. It is promising the best way ever to grind through data, but it means nothing without human intervention.
And by human intervention I mean me getting paid Mahalo dollars to either provide the correct answer if I know it, or to motivate me to go out and research it, then present the answer in a way that I know the original person asking it can understand it.
Now, what that engine is going to make interesting is regular search engine operations. If they can build it so it scales up economically, the way Google does with theirs, then maybe they have something good enough to pitch to Microsoft, who is very interested in anything that can make Google's life miserable. I am sure that they will write them a check on the spot.
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I'll be very interested to see what it can do.
Stephen Wolfram is a very bright guy, and from the description on his blog he by no means under-estimates the difficulty of what he's trying to do, and he is not making ridiculous claims for how far he's gotten. In effect he's saying, "this is a very difficult problem, but I had an idea about how it could be done, we've been working on it for years, and we've achieved enough that a portion of it is worth making live".
Personally I'd be quite surprised if they've managed to create anything more than a fancier search engine that has a bit more insight into what you're looking for. Even that would be a very good thing to have of course.
I don't think it could be a Mahalo Answers killer. It might automate some of "grunt work" of finding straightforward facts and evaluating sources, but to replace what people do on Mahalo Answers.. well you'd need a true AI that could virtually pass the Turing Test, and we're nowhere close to that yet.
Just take this question itself. Nothing I've seen written on Wolfram Alpha suggests it would have a hope in hell of giving a reasonable answer to a question like this.
But if he's come up with anything remotely close to what is described on his site, I'll be very excited about it.
Source(s):
http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/wolfram-alpha-computes-answers-to-fact...
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| April 27, 2009 02:46 PM |
And by human intervention I mean me getting paid Mahalo dollars to either provide the correct answer if I know it, or to motivate me to go out and research it, then present the answer in a way that I know the original person asking it can understand it.
Now, what that engine is going to make interesting is regular search engine operations. If they can build it so it scales up economically, the way Google does with theirs, then maybe they have something good enough to pitch to Microsoft, who is very interested in anything that can make Google's life miserable. I am sure that they will write them a check on the spot.
| Asker's Rating: |
• I couldn't agree with you more. Great answer - thanks!
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Other Answers (2)
April 27, 2009 03:55 PM
I had never heard of Wolfram Alpha before. I'll be very interested to see what it can do.
Stephen Wolfram is a very bright guy, and from the description on his blog he by no means under-estimates the difficulty of what he's trying to do, and he is not making ridiculous claims for how far he's gotten. In effect he's saying, "this is a very difficult problem, but I had an idea about how it could be done, we've been working on it for years, and we've achieved enough that a portion of it is worth making live".
Personally I'd be quite surprised if they've managed to create anything more than a fancier search engine that has a bit more insight into what you're looking for. Even that would be a very good thing to have of course.
I don't think it could be a Mahalo Answers killer. It might automate some of "grunt work" of finding straightforward facts and evaluating sources, but to replace what people do on Mahalo Answers.. well you'd need a true AI that could virtually pass the Turing Test, and we're nowhere close to that yet.
Just take this question itself. Nothing I've seen written on Wolfram Alpha suggests it would have a hope in hell of giving a reasonable answer to a question like this.
But if he's come up with anything remotely close to what is described on his site, I'll be very excited about it.
Source(s):
http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/08/wolfram-alpha-computes-answers-to-fact...
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