Would you use a Deal finding bot that relies on AI to find the best deal?
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M$13 Answers
Deal aggregation sites such as boddit (boddit.com) come to mind as a good place to scan for recent and current deals. Many of the popular deal/coupon sites such as slickdeals.net, and fatwallet.com, offer email alerts that will send a message instantly, daily, or weekly when a search term is found in a new post. Likewise, you can receive an alert when a new post is made in a particular thread you are following. Although this can generate a flood of emails, I find this is best way to spot a fresh deal for the hottest items.
Lastly, and I know this is common sense, but always consider the source (retailer) for the item, and make sure you are buying from a reputable vendor. The lowest price from a store that offers zero support, or bait and switch tactics, could end up costing you in aggravation, killing your enjoyment of the product you are searching for. See resellerratings.com as one of the retailer review sites you should check if you are unsure about a particular source.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$The two shopping sites I rely on are google's (formerly called froogle) and yahoo's.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$There is also the factor of how reliable is the source? If the deal finding bot gave me deals to reliable sources then that would make me prone to using it even more. Finding what appears to be the best deal (through things like eBay) sometimes end up backfiring on you.
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M$For example, travelocity, expedia, and priceline do not compare the prices of ALL airlines on their respective sites -- only some, and they don't always beat online ticket prices directly from the airlines. However, they can be handy tools to do a quick comparison between airlines, in order to rule out the most expensive ones.
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M$Reason 1) Cheap doesn't mean best =) Always check the Seller's backgrounds, to avoid knockoffs. if you mean quality results regarding this problem, then ignore reason 1
Reason 2) There are alot of deals that are hidden throughout the web, like for flying tickets, or sports events. Just searching for deals wont cut it if you don't know how to find them.
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M$You can leave an optional "tip" with Mahalo's virtual currency, Mahalo Dollars. If you are asking a difficult question that might require some research, or if you'd like a wide variety of feedback, a higher tip often leads to more answers to your question.
M$
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M$
Artificial Intelligence is supposed to learn, based on repetition, right? But we humans adapt and adjust and then change our minds. I would rather understand someone's bias, motives, and perspective and take that into consideration than rely on technology to try to do that interpreting for me.
My opinion. I read a lot and think about things. :)
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M$My reasoning is this: AI does a great job of finding, as you say, "quality results," but finding the *best* result typically proves to be NP-hard. That is, the problem is irreducibly complex and the best efforts tend to come down to "try everything." Thus, it is unlikely the *best* solution will be presented if even the smallest variable is off.
Humans, however, have a great sense about what is "best" given a selection of "quality" options. My solution, therefore, would have an AI bot that finds a selection of "quality" results and have a human hand-pick the best of the best. Plus, salespersons are typically hesitant to make deals with machines--never underestimate the power of good haggling skills.
I am a CS grad student at UCLA who dabbles in AI.
Also, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NP-complete
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NP-complete_problems
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M$
You are correct. However, the notion of "best deal" typically isn't a linear comparison of price X vs price Y. When you factor in things like reward points, shipping, taxes, two-for-one deals, buying in bulk, etc, etc, etc, finding the *best* price suddenly become incredibly complex.
The AI bot would have to know about (or at least be able to learn) how all these factors combine to create a "best deal;" unknown/unlearned factors would cause the results to be skewed. Hence, the AI bot would likely do a good job of finding "quality" answers, but probably not the *best* answer.
Technically, "best price" is not an NP-hard problem. Also, computationally, finding a best price would always require a simple exhaustive search, giving it a linear complexity.
AI
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M$
It could be very useful, especially if it was able to, say, suggest Christmas gifts not only for myself but for my friends and family. I could create profiles for each loved one and the AI system would get to know them as well, recommending items for each person individually.
I of course wouldn't trust this as my sole "deal-finding" solution, but it would surely be helpful.
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M$
