Why the heck did eBay move a vase to BOXES?

[pillarboxred]

This Artificial Intelligence nonsense is a car crash and I am sick of it. You type something and eBay changes it to something else and now this: miscategorising items. I would not have chosen Boxes for a vase even if drunk.

[1902elder]

Out of curiosity I tried AI on a couple of my listings, and the results were ridiculous, so deleted and used my own description. I will never use it, and I will never buy from anyone who I suspect is using it.

[the-nutwood-collection]

The purpose of both a box and a vase is to be a container for other items. 

To AI, lumping them together makes perfect sense. 

[vintique*violet]

😉 To a robot maybe? 

[the-nutwood-collection]

Many years ago, I was sent on a course to learn to improve the responses generated by our expert systems (which is what AI was called in those days) to soft problems.

We had to look at a picture of two people who were examining a gift destined for another person.  The caption was 'I hope she hasn't already got one'.  We then had to discuss how to teach the system the system that a gift of some items (e.g. a scarf ) the recipient already has was not good, but a gift of other items (e.g. a gold bar) when they already had one was OK.

That's the problem with AI.  It's very difficult to code rules that the human brain can figure out instantly.

That's why it thinks vases and boxes are the same.

[vintique*violet]

I dislike A.I with a passion, the human brain is far more intelligent and worthy of being used daily 😉 

[exponential_developments]

For the people that create and sell AI it's......... Artificial Intelligence

For the people that use AI it's...............Artificial Idiot.

[vintique*violet]

Automated Ignorance ... some would say  😉

[pillarboxred]

Hmm... using your brain daily is like going to the gym daily, a good choice for some people but most of us try to get by with a little exercise now and then🙃.

[pillarboxred]

Yes, and the right answer is a gold bar wrapped in a scarf is always the right gift.

[pillarboxred]

I've started using it. It is cringe-makingly vulgar, quite staggeringly so, but if that is what eBay shoppers like to read, I feel I have to go along with it if I am to sell anything. However, I use it as an armature and try to replace most of it with my own phrases and adjectives. The AI text has a narrative momentum and rhythm which presumably derives from listings on eBay which have been successful. It highlights certain features and  mentions properties and attributes that one might forget in composing one's own advert. That said, the mind goes numb as it encounters yet  another  "stunning" item of "intricate craftsmanship".

[pillarboxred]

I think that was what nutwood was saying.

[pillarboxred]

Gosh, you are probably right. I believe there is some sort of science to classifying and naming things and the people doing AI will be using it. So Man Made Objects > Objects to put other objects in: there's a class. They will be trying to allocate such a class to everything listed on eBay based on such high concepts. However, what shoppers are looking for is expressed in their own search strings in their ordinary language.