Monthly Archives: April 2016

2 Artificial Intelligence

Have you noticed the term “artificial intelligence” is oxymoronic?  Artificial flowers are not flowers.  If intelligence is artificial it is not intelligence.  If something intelligent emerged from a machine, it would not be artificial.  Although different from human intelligence, it would be the real thing.

Clever but Not Intelligent

First, we must distinguish cleverness from intelligence.  We can develop machines that are not just clever but cleverer than we are.  However, these are still computing machines, machines that help us work things out.  These machines can be dangerous.  There is nothing to stop us programming them to kill.  I have every confidence the military have that under control or they will have until someone nicks one and works out how to control it.

But note however clever these machines may be they are still controlled by human beings.

In science fiction the autonomous machine has a long-term pedigree.  I suppose the earliest was the Golem, programmed by a scroll of scripture and so subject to human control.

Isaac Asimov’s robot series is perhaps one of the more sophisticated approaches to the genre.  His three laws of robotics are still influential.

So, is a fully autonomous artificial being possible?  I don’t doubt it is possible to build a machine that replicates autonomy.  The Turing test was designed to demonstrate this.  Turing argued that if we can’t tell the difference between a machine and a human, when we don’t know which is communicating, then we have the real deal.

Personality

I have my doubts.  Human consciousness is the product of living in community.  A machine would need to live among us to develop its own personality.  It is hard to imagine what true autonomy would be like without personality.  Such a being would raise issues such as whether switching off the machine would be murder.

A human child’s personality emerges over several years and their personality continues to grow as it accumulates experiences throughout their life.  A parent, looking back can discern the seeds of the adult child in the baby.  Could a machine evolve its personality faster?  Maybe but it would still need others to interact with and this interaction would set the pace at which the machine became conscious.

Does AI Already Exist?

I doubt anyone really knows what they are trying to program to make a machine autonomous.  Most people think it is some function of complexity.  But the Internet is complex and there is no way it could ever become conscious.

There is a great deal of human experience that cannot be digitised; our perception of colour, for example.  A machine can recognise the colour red from its wavelength but does not experience red as we do.  These experiences are sometimes called qualia and they are one thing that distinguishes conscious beings from machines.  It seems many animals experience qualia but machines so far cannot.  But how would we know?

If AI is possible, how do we know we don’t have it already?  In science fiction it is usually associated with a humanoid body.  This is something still far from reality.  Perhaps the machine needs a body of some sort to become conscious but if AI is possible why not any hardware format?

If AI is possible it may exist already in a box in someone’s lab.  How would they know it was autonomous?  It would be terribly clever and might be able to work out how to propagate itself but how would we know?

Perhaps the most useful aspect of this debate is the insight it gives us into our own consciousness.  What is it that makes us human and unique?  Maybe we’re the product of a unique accident or perhaps there are others like us aware of their own mortality.  And perhaps it is our mortality that forms our consciousness and makes us unique.

What do you think about AI?  Why do you think it is or is not in principle practical?  If it is, do you think it may already exist?

4 How Do I Demonstrate Benefits?

I have written about benefits before.  They are important because you sell benefits, not products, services or causes.  Through your offer you demonstrate your offer’s benefits.  The problem is many people are not clear about their offer’s benefits.  How do you demonstrate benefits?

Identify Benefits

One big advantage to identifying benefits is it goes some way to proving them.  Digging deep into the benefits of a particular offer is likely to result in something that rings true.

The circuit questionnaire suggest using the words “which means that” to dig deeper into your benefits.  Here is my attempt from some time ago:

A web presence that works for your organisation

Which means that:

Your organisation will be more effective at getting its message across

Which means that:

It will raise more funds, increase membership, build partnerships

Which means that:

New opportunities will open up for it through multiple feedback options

Which means that:

Its understanding of its own purpose will deepen

When I wrote this, my offer emphasised assisting clients with developing their web presence.  My current offer focuses on local marketing, integrating in-person and online marketing approaches.

These days I would start with local marketing instead of web presence.  I suspect, after the first two or so iterations, I would find much the same benefits.

On first reading, more funds, members and partners might seem the most attractive line.  Indeed, it is a benefit I might feature on a website.  Potential clients may be seeking one or more of these and seeing them listed as a benefit might encourage them to read on.

In contrast, the last line offering a deeper understanding of their own purpose might lack any kind of draw in the cold light of a monitor screen.

However, during a marketing conversation, it could be compelling.  If the client is thinking through their own marketing approach, and realises they don’t really understand their own purpose, such a benefit might seem beneficial.

So, take note this approach can result in a range of answers to the question, what are your benefits?  These answers may all be helpful if deployed at the right time or in the right place.  (If you don’t know the right time or place, you’re in great company.  The only way I know is trial and error, occasionally assisted by split testing – a massive and important topic.)

Look at it this way: I could show someone a few techniques that might help them attract more members.  All they would need to do is apply them and the chances are they would work.  However, if I can help them understand their purpose, deepen their understanding, perhaps they would find their own methods for increasing membership.  They would no longer rely on me to suggest approaches.

Many businesses sell products but market a lifestyle:

“When you buy our beer, you’re supporting people who take great pride in crafting beers using traditional methods.  Furthermore, they work collaboratively, according to co-operative principles so that many people work together to bring a whole way of life to your table.”

I’m not claiming this copy is brilliant but note, what is objectively a bottle of beer can be sold as a work of art or a way of life!

Demonstrate Benefits

If you’re selling beer, your customer gets a bottle of beer.  So long as it tastes good, the customer is happy and may come back for more. The offer is cheap enough to allow the customer to risk not liking it.  If they find a dead spider in the bottle, they may complain but in general the beer proves itself.  If they don’t like it they’re more likely to try another type and unlikely to complain.

As the customer invests more money or time in the offer, they are more likely to seek proof your offer can actually deliver the promised benefits.

If the offer is a service delivered in different ways to each client, it can be difficult to show how the benefits can be delivered.  The vendor may be confident their approach is effective but how do they convey this confidence to their customer?

There are several options and they all depend on the offer being sound in the first place.  I’ll cover these in future posts but today I’ll show how it works.

The vendor needs a specific approach, a formula if you like, which can be applied to any problem to produce the desired approach.  This way the vendor can show how their approach can solve the customer’s problem.

I use the circuit questionnaire to help the client uncover the deeper dynamic of their offers, use the information to design a marketing strategy and then we may work together to deliver the strategy, making adjustments as we go.

You will note this explanation moves from benefits to features.  Benefits sell but features prove it is possible to achieve the benefits.  The discerning customer will seek the features so they can assess whether the promised benefits are credible.  This is not simply listing features but showing how the features work together to deliver the benefits.

How do you prove your offer results in the benefits you claim for it?