Artificial intelligence has been around for a long time
The editorial by Editor-in-Chief Anne-Friederike Heinrich from *Werbewoche* 10/17, dated June 2, 2017.
The moaning about digital disruption has barely died down before everyone is talking about artificial intelligence. Even before the 2017 "Advertiser of the Year" award ceremony at Zurich's "X-tra," the topic was hotly debated. Politicians, marketing managers and advertisers, consumer advocates and presenters, all agreed that a lot is already happening in terms of AI - but that it will still be a long time before artificial intelligence takes communications away from the communications industry. Is that really true?
No. Artificial intelligence is anything but a dream of the future: According to a study, 60.5 million Americans already speak regularly with Alexa, Siri and others, which is just under one-fifth of the total American population. The 25- to 34-year-olds in particular are rapidly becoming heavy users. It can't be long before Apple TV with Siri also works in Switzerland, until self-driving cars are no longer headline worthy. The Los Angeles Times has some of its news produced by robots; they produce reports on current topics much faster than an editor - and don't charge a fee to boot. The first agencies are using AI and neural networks to check in seconds which slogans or images have worked particularly well with which target group, and derive new campaigns from this. Swiss insurance companies use AI to evaluate claims, and AI programs diagnose cancer in seconds and recommend therapies based on the latest research. Five years ago, people were still annoyed by the annoying "fill-the-trolley-with-everything-on-a-belt-and-pack-it-back-into-the-trolley" process, but today they hold the scanner in their hands themselves, which is also just a transitional device: Amazon is opening a grocery store where you log in and out with your smartphone. The shopping cart registers what you buy and what you put back on the shelf. The purchase price is debited automatically.
You can find this rapid development great or threatening, it ultimately doesn't matter. The fact is that it cannot be stopped and we will have to get used to sharing some of our personal data. Smart systems take (not so smart) activities off our hands and give us time in return - time that has become really rare and that we can then use for real creativity. Or for regeneration.
Industrialization was no different: Suddenly, machines were doing physically very strenuous and monotonous work, and people were freed from it. Those who quickly adapted to this development quickly found themselves doing higher-value work. Those who refused lost - often not only their jobs. It will be the same with this revolution. Let's rejoice that AI can relieve us of tedious tasks such as shopping, flipping through already existing campaigns or writing short reports. Then we can take care of complex research, gripping reports, and sensational campaigns; we can think about what our recipients will want to read or hear tomorrow, what ads they will want to see - and offer them exactly what they would have been looking for the next minute anyway. In anticipatory obedience, so to speak, predictive, personalized and highly relevant.
For that, we have to let go of our very human fear of what is coming; as well as the panic of losing control over our personal data. Does it really threaten our autonomy if it is stored somewhere that I prefer to eat baguettes with Bündnerfleisch rather than thon? Or is it a super service if no one bothers me with thon sandwiches anymore? Decide for yourself. Personally, it bothers me less if a smart calculation program knows the thing about me with the baguette than if my neighbor studies my laundry in the tumbler. And he's not even intelligent.
Anne-Friederike Heinrich, Editor-in-Chief
